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| Holding hands with my mother - a wonderful "Moment Of Peace" with our palms connecting and sending peaceful energy right on up to our hearts |
If we are not happy, if we are not peaceful, we cannot share peace and happiness with others, even those we love, those who live under the same roof. If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace. Do we need to make a special effort to enjoy the beauty of the blue sky? Do we have to practice to be able to enjoy it? No, we just enjoy it. Each second, each minute of our lives can be like this.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist
Photographs capture beautifully "Moments of Peace".
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| Moments of Peace with Lightning Bugs (these are my grandchildren, Hank and Jade) |
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| Moments of Peace at Musher's Bowl in Maine - waiting for the dog sled race to begin |
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| Our Son, Ben, catching a few moments on the lake |
In the book Yoga For Your Spiritual Muscles, Rachel Schaeffer suggests that we not wait for picture perfect moments of serenity, like meditating on a secluded mountain top, to bring peace into your daily life.
It's important to find those moments throughout your day. When do you have "Moments of Peace"?
One suggestions she has - find your own "Pose For Peace". Any position that feels good to you, where your muscles are relaxed and nothing is tense or tight.
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| Balasana or Child's Pose is relaxing and restorative ************************************I thought it might be fun to see what the experts have to say about foods that promote peace. (http://www.arizonafoothillsmagazine.com/taste/phoenix-food-and-restaurant-news/five-foods-for-peace) Five Foods for Peace
We’ve heard of food that will make you thinner, boost your energy or put you in a good mood. But what about foods that will make you more peaceful? Chef/Biodynamic Gardener Cynthia Mont’Ross (a.k.a. Chef Moon) of The Sanctuary at Sedona, a healing retreat in Sedona, lists five peace-inducing eats.
Chamomile Tea Soothing chamomile flowers originate from the Nile River Valley of Egypt. This golden herb remains a favorite since ancient times for its properties that promote calm and relieve anxiety. When steeped, these fragrant blossoms smell of freshly cut apples and produce a rich, golden cup with superior flavor. It is highly recommended for relaxation. This caffeine-free herbal infusion is delicious served with honey.
Banana Fig Pudding A soothing, calming sweet treat high in minerals and potassium, banana fig pudding offers a nurturing and cleansing alternative. In blender or preferred food processor mix four bananas, a handful of clean, soaked figs and fig soak water, two tablespoons ground flax, raw honey to taste and pinch of ground nutmeg. Combine all ingredients and blend into creamy pudding. Serve chilled, sprinkled with shredded coconut.
Miso SoupA bowl of miso for breakfast, lunch or dinner is by far one of the most soothing foods, especially when feeling under the weather during the cold and flu season. Miso paste, a traditional Japanese seasoning, is very high in B12 and a great source of Lactobacillus acidophilus. High in probiotics, as well as rich in protein, vitamins, mineral and antioxidants, miso also protects against aging, radiation and is perfect for soothing any stomach complaints. There are many traditional ways of preparing miso soup, including mixing two tablespoons of miso, vegetable broth, lemon juice and cayenne pepper with warm water into an instant cup of soothing goodness.
Walnuts The excitement and stress of returning back to the office after the New Year can sometimes leave a feeling of exhaustion and depletion. Grabbing a handful of raw walnuts can be the perfect grounding, yet nerve-energizing, pick-me-up during a busy day. Walnuts are one of the richest sources of stress-relieving nutrients including B-vitamins, zinc and protein.
Chocolate There is actually a good excuse for eating chocolate, under one condition: It needs to be dark and as high in cacao as possible. Studies have shown that eating a small piece of a dark chocolate candy bar each day can lower levels of stress hormones, like cortisol, norephinephrine and epinephrine, which cause a person to feel nervous and anxious. It also alters the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain that play a role in controlling mood.
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The history of the peace sign is a really interesting one. I've pasted it below from this website.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_symbols
The peace sign
The internationally recognized symbol for peace was originally designed for the British nuclear disarmament movement by Gerald Holtom in 1958. Holtom, an artist and designer, made it for a march from Trafalgar Square, London to the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in England, organised by the Direct Action Committee to take place in April and supported by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Holtom's design, the original of which is housed in the Peace Museum in Bradford, England, was adapted by Eric Austen (1922–1999) to ceramic lapel badges.
The symbol is a combination of the semaphore signals for the letters "N" and "D," standing for "nuclear disarmament". In semaphore the letter "N" is formed by a person holding two flags in an upside-down "V," and the letter "D" is formed by holding one flag pointed straight up and the other pointed straight down. Superimposing these two signs forms the shape of the centre of the peace symbol. Holtom later wrote to Hugh Brock, editor of Peace News, explaining the genesis of his idea in greater depth: "I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it." Ken Kolsbum, a correspondent of Holtom's, says that the designer came to regret the symbolism of despair, as he felt that peace was something to be celebrated and wanted the symbol to be inverted. Eric Austen is said to have "discovered that the 'gesture of despair' motif had long been associated with 'the death of man', and the circle with 'the unborn child'," possibly referring to images in Rudolf Koch's The Book of Signs, (Das Zeichenbuch, 1923) an English edition of which had been published in 1955.
The symbol became the badge of CND and wearing it became a sign of support for the campaign for unilateral nuclear disarmament by Britain. An account of CND's early history described it as "a visual adhesive to bind the [Aldermaston] March and later the whole Campaign together ... probably the most powerful, memorable and adaptable image ever designed for a secular cause."
Not patented or restricted, the symbol spread beyond CND and was adopted by the wider anti-war movement. It became known in the United States in 1958 when Albert Bigelow, a pacifist protester, sailed a small boat fitted with the CND banner into the vicinity of a nuclear test. Buttons with the symbol were imported into the United States in 1960 by Philip Altbach, a freshman at the University of Chicago. Altbach had traveled to England to meet with British peace groups as a delegate from the Student Peace Union (SPU) and on his return he persuaded the SPU to adopt the symbol. Between 1960 and 1964 they sold thousands of the buttons on college campuses. By end of the decade it had become a generic peace sign, crossing national and cultural boundaries.
An article published in 1970 by the John Birch Society claimed that the peace symbol had Communist, anti-Christian, Satanist and Nazi associations. This claim has been repeated by some Christian conservatives.
In Unicode, the peace symbol is U+262E: ☮, and can thus be generated in HTML by typing ☮ or ☮ - though some internet browsers may not have a typeface that can display it.
Sending lots of love and hope for many moments of peace in your life,
Donna Rae
p.s. Thank you Rachel, Cynthia and wikepedia. Oh, and also to you for reading my blog to the very end.
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