Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Creative Resistance


A small group meets regularly in my living room on Wednesdays when we can.  It began as a conversation about joining the church, but has long since morphed into Tea-Time with friends.  

We talk, we laugh, we share, we pray. . . and sometimes we even study.

Just now, we are diving, all with trepidation, into Joy Mead's Making Peace in Practice and Poetry . . . trepidation because this small book challenges us to make, to be peace, through poetry . . . our own poetry . . . and none of us are poets, or at least so we think.

We begin reading Joy Mead’s own poem, Personal Peacemaking.  One line strikes me: “I shall resist violence and destruction creatively by . . .”, which is followed by Mead’s personal list, which takes me by surprise.

I shall resist violence and destruction creatively by:
dancing and laughing,
planting trees and sowing seeds,
making and sharing bread
. . . and ice cream!

As her poetic peace credo continues, I am challenged.  How shall I resist violence and destruction in my own life?  How shall I take the ideals and principles that take me to Iraq and convert them into an every-day way of being?  What is my own peace credo?

With pen to paper, I begin . . . and this is all that it is and all that it is . . . a beginning . . .

I shall resist violence and destruction creatively by:
playing the cello
making a casserole
sharing my chocolate
laughing with my friends
jumping hopscotch
blowing bubbles
sitting underneath every rainbow I see
listening more
talking less

What will be your peace credo?  Won’t you share it with the world today?

4 comments:

  1. I shall resist violence and destruction creatively by..
    ducking out of that last visit that ticks a box and makes me feel righteous
    and go off and make music with friends
    lugging the nagging voice that tells me I'm less than I am to the beach and leaving it for the tide to take far out to sea
    watch the laundry dance in the breeze
    smile benignly in the face of manipulation
    and snuggle up with my loved ones

    What a wonderful post - would be a good spiritual discipline to write one of these at the start of every day!

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  2. I adore you, Liz Crumlish! Fabulous - yes to the laundry dancing (thanks to my Scots friends, it's one of my own regular spiritual disciplines now) - ducking myself - oh yes, leaving the nagging voices behind - absolutely - working on the smiling benignly :-)

    Thank you for being you and being friend!

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  3. I shall resust violence and destruction creatively by...
    letting my tears fall as they will
    smiling first
    giving into joy instead of work
    hearing more
    Listening better
    letting anger encourage me- not drive me

    Melissa

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  4. Melissa, I had never thought before that unchecked tears can be and are a source of our violent and destructive impulses - thank you for revealing that truth to me! And love the last one too - being encouraged rather than driven by our anger. Thank you for everything. Beth

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