Welcome to “Waging Peace”
Remember, you’re the co-creator of this dive. Do as much or as little as you’d like, when you’d like, how you’d like, with the materials I provide. Just keep gentle faith with yourself.
Set your intention
Take a moment to name the primary intention you have for this month-long deep dive and/or this particular session. Take a quiet moment to center yourself in that intention.
Receive the music
Try to refrain from judging the music as “good” or “bad” or forming an “I like it” or “I don’t like it” opinion. For a few minutes, cultivate curiosity and openness. If resistance arises in you, be curious about that too.
Read the poem
I invite you to read this poem twice—aloud, at least once. You may also listen to the poet’s reading of the poem.
Note: Once you start the video, you may wish to toggle on the “㏄” (closed captioning) button that appears on the video navigation bar, better to follow the poet’s English.
IN A TIME OF PEACE Ilya Kaminsky Inhabitant of earth for forty something years I once found myself in a peaceful country. I watch neighbors open their phones to watch a cop demanding a man’s driver’s license. When a man reaches for his wallet, the cop shoots. Into the car window. Shoots. It is a peaceful country. We pocket our phones and go. To the dentist, to buy shampoo, pick up the children from school, get basil. Ours is a country in which a boy shot by police lies on the pavement for hours. We see in his open mouth the nakedness of the whole nation. We watch. Watch others watch. The body of a boy lies on the pavement exactly like the body of a boy. It is a peaceful country. And it clips our citizens’ bodies effortlessly, the way the President’s wife trims her toenails. All of us still have to do the hard work of dentist appointments, of remembering to make a summer salad: basil, tomatoes, it is a joy, tomatoes, add a little salt. This is a time of peace. I do not hear gunshots, but watch birds splash over the backyards of the suburbs. How bright is the sky as the avenue spins on its axis. How bright is the sky (forgive me) how bright. (from Dear Republic)
Contemplate/Create
Use any of these questions however you wish—e.g., as openings for meditation or prayer, as prompts for journaling or poetry-writing, as sparks for drawing or painting, as catalysts for change-making . . . You may also ignore my questions altogether to go off in other directions!
How do you experience the ironic tone of this poem, in which this “time of peace” is not a time of peace at all?
Are you ever struck by life going on “as usual” during a time of war, extreme violence, etc.? What might be some of the reasons that we or others keep to “the usual”? How do we wage peace in the midst of apathy, indifference, paralyzing despair...?
Want to visit with other Rafters in the Deep Dive?
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These materials are for educational purposes only. Not for sale or reproduction.
Join me and a SPECIAL MYSTERY GUEST
for a closing Zoom on February 1!
6:00-7:00PM Central (7:00 ET, 5:00 MT, 4:00 PT)
Let’s close “Waging Peace” with a time of voluntary sharing. (It’s fine just to listen!) Come and reflect with other Rafters on this Deep Dive.
Registration is required for this celebration.
(Note: Minimum of five people must have registered for the Refuge by midnight, January 31, in order for this Zoom to take place. Thanks!)
Perhaps peace, like everything else, is relative?
We are delusional and numb. I think our "False Selves" take over.