"Waging Peace" #2

Featuring Reginald Harris and Marvin Gaye

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.

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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.

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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.

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Read the poem

I invite you to read this poem twice—aloud, at least once. You may also listen to my reading of the poem, perhaps with your eyes closed.

NORMAL
Reginald Harris

       for Shara McCallum

walk long enough
with a pebble in your shoe
and walking with a pebble becomes
normal

you no longer notice
the discomfort          the limp is just
another thing to live with
pain just another fact of life

until someone you haven’t seen for a time
asks      Why are you limping
and you remember
Oh yes, that’s right—
I have a pebble in my shoe

and then what do you do
take it out      leave it in because
you are used to its dull and constant ache
do not want to learn how to walk properly again

live long enough
with war
and it becomes
normal

men and women you don’t know—
someone else’s children—
fly off the edges of the map
to places you were never taught existed

photos of the dead close out
nightly news programs        a familiar tagline
as the anchor signs off
until tomorrow

images of troops march across
a strange topography    the sound of guns
going off in places so distant
you hardly notice               one barely hears a noise
until someone says
We’ve been at war my entire adult life
and you remember
Oh, yes, that’s right—
there IS a war still going on

And then what do you do?


(from Poetry of Presence II)

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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!

• Contemplate any pebble(s) in your shoe, particularly in the context of war/peace, violence/nonviolence, etc. What does that pebble feel like? What might it want to say to you? What might your foot want to say? Your shoe? Your limp?

• Imagine a newscast in a world with no more war or violence. Write/create from that scenario.

• An important role is played in this poem by the anonymous “someone” who raises our awareness about significant matters. Who is someone who does that for you, and how do they do it? “And then,” asks the poet, “what do you do?”

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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!)

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Questions? Never hesitate to contact me.

See you tomorrow.