It has been awhile since I sent in a blog to Ode. A combination of travel and busy with family on holidays was one reason. The other was that I have been trying to write an article based on thermodynamics, entropy, self regulating systems and the mind inspired by my engineering education of the past and my current inquiry into mind and matter. The article essentially bogged me down. I was obsessed by the topic for some time that I could not think of anything different to write. I have finally come to terms with it, left it aside for now and writing again.

The travel at the end of June has to be blamed on the Ode magazine as I got hooked on the Shambhala Summer Institute on Authentic Leadership in Action in Halifax, Canada. So, I did not worry about how I could afford the $3,000 fee and $2,000 airfare from Colombo to Halifax and back, I just jumped in. It was made more affordable to me by the good Shambhala folk through their scholarship programme and this was one of the best decisions I made this year.   Read more...

Try this experiment for a week - or even just a day: Fix your plate as you normally would, but before you eat, take the time to determine how many servings of food you are taking in. You may be surprised to find out that you are ingesting 3-4x the recommended servings.

Most Americans don't know what an actual serving looks like because we're so used to receiving and eating such large portions. If you find that you're "supersizing" at every meal, you should gradually reduce your serving sizes and chances are that you will be satisfied with less food.   Read more...

Eating alien babies. Dorothy liked the Chinese restaurant very much. The buzzing conversations, the carefully contrived atmosphere of oriental chic. Plus, there’s that waiter that looks like Christian Bale. But she always thought that doing dim sum was like eating alien babies. Cute little monsters that sliver down your throat.

‘My life is effectively over.’ Millie fishes for martian shrimp and is having somewhat of a quarterlife crisis. ‘Today I had a job interview. I think they googled me and found the party pictures my ex-boyfriend posted on facebook, because they had this disgusted look on their faces. It could have been arrogance, I’m not sure. There was this woman, I swear, with the characteristics of a sweatshop manager. She asked me what music I liked to listen to and I just panicked.’   Read more...

The dots between the letters tell you, undoubtedly, that I’m using P.E.A.C.E. as an acronym—a word made up of the first letters of additional words that spells another word altogether. This one comes from the brilliant mind of the luscious Iyanla Vanzant, a spiritual teacher based in Maryland. It stands for:

Please Excuse All Crazy Experiences

Is that not phenomenal? I think it is. So very often when we hold out an ideal for our world, we dangle the ideal. Dangle it? Lambast with it is more like it, but we forget one vital piece of the puzzle. And that is the indubitable how question.   Read more...

Teenage pregnancy is a problem in South Africa. Young single mothers are ubiquitous in my village and the surrounding communities. Sometimes when I visit the post office I find a colorful queue of mothers that stretches far outside. They often have babies wrapped on their backs and some are pregnant. It’s grant day, and they are waiting to collect the monthly allowance provided by the government. Each month on the post office wall a new hand-written sign appears with three dates designated for child grant distribution. A range of years is listed after each date; mothers collect the grant based on their own birth year. Initially it troubled me to see that girls born more than ten years after me were collecting grants for their children. How could a 16-year-old possibly be a mother? I’m 27 years old and don’t feel prepared for that responsibility!

Despite my personal lack of present maternal instincts, I recognize that many women do feel those instincts at a far younger age. But an instinct alone cannot—and should not—explain the alarmingly high rate of pregnancy.   Read more...

Would you sugarcoat your words?

When conversing with one another we try to project truth but how often is the bitter truth disguised as what they say, “ sugar coated pills?” In a direct conversation, the energies are fully conscious, regenerative and articulate, but there is a set of laws that contributes to the archetypal structure of talks.

These set of laws are about being polite, being discreet, politically correct (in some circumstances) and being diplomatic in one’s speech. For example if I need to say something unpleasant to someone I would use the “ indirect speech” such as “ I think we must ‘reconsider’ our relationship, it is hurting both of us.” Rather than “I have stopped loving you, and I want you out from my life.” When I imagine myself at the receiving end of both the ways, I know which one I would prefer!   Read more...

While on a quest for weight loss, we often search for every small advantage we can find. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes it leads us to make emotional food choices rather than choosing healthy foods based on proven facts. Emotionally, the following list of foods may sound like great options, but read on to find out why they may fool you:   Read more...

It's late, and dark. We're in one of the many suburbs of Dar, more than an hours drive from the center. The roads are more potholes with some little road on the side then anything else. Houses have space here, there are trees and bushes and it doesn't feel like town. Our passengers have fallen silent, or are asleep and only the driver and me are awake. Every junction we guess: right or left, in an attempt to escape the web of dirt roads and get back to the main road. Families sit at their verandas, eating and talking in the fresh breeze. We talk with long pauses, about work, home, religion, the future and how hungry we are. Then the topic changes to politics.   Read more...

One of the fancy places in Dar es Salaam. A fast food chain, a bakery, internet café and little tables host lots of youngsters and elderly sipping their juices, chatting. I'm talking to Athman, a student of banking, working in his sister's duka, shop, and always looking for new challenges. We discuss the differences between Tanzania and the Netherlands. He has been in Holland twice on an exchange project and is well acquainted with a Dutch family who treat him like a son.   Read more...

When I was in my early twenties, Simon and Garfunkel were immensely popular. We would play their tunes night and day, and revel in the idea of being part of the culture they, and others like them, were ushering into the world. One song in particular that stuck like glue was “A Bridge Over Troubled Waters”. It is still with me. Round and round and round it has played in my head and heart over these many years.

* * * * *   Read more...

Dropping from the bus my sandal breaks. The repair shop is right in front of me. Dave seizes the opportunity and makes a place on his bench under a tree. While stitching my sandal, the discussion moves back and forth between the six or seven guys around him. Street vendors that keep their tangerines in Dave's eyesight, a guy selling cigarettes per piece from Dave's pack, others seemingly just sitting there advising Dave on the stitching methods.

"Who taught you to fix shoes?" is one of my curious questions to the young Rastafarian. "Njaa, hunger is the best teacher" is his simple answer "I just knew".   Read more...

Lauren Child, one of the world best known children’s authors and the creator of Charlie and Lola is donating the royalties from her best-selling book “That Pesky Rat” for three years to UNESCO’s Programme for the Education of Children in Need.

UNESCO created the Programme for the Education of Children in Need in 1992 to offer a future to vulnerable children through education. Since its creation, over US$33 million has been raised in private funds and these have been fully and directly invested into immediate support for over 332 projects in 92 countries worldwide.   Read more...

More than 300 colleges and universities give degrees in Peacebuilding and Peace Studies. The current spectrum of our peacebuilding expertise includes leading edge technologies in the fields of conflict resolution, peer mediation, post-conflict reconstruction and many other forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Regrettably, current policy-making tends toward reactive, not proactive, approaches to reducing violence. We typically wait until violence has occurred and then ask our already over-taxed police and military to address these symptoms of violence through activities such as imprisonment of offenders and engagement in armed conflict. While such suppression of symptoms is vital, it is incomplete and must be augmented by stronger preventative measures, with a specific focus on the identification and treatment of root causes.

Please join us in saying, "I Stand for Peace." Help us save lives, save money, and save our country for future generations.   Read more...

Try this experiment for a week - or even just a day: Fix your plate as you normally would, but before you eat, take the time to determine how many servings of food you are taking in. You may be surprised to find out that you are ingesting 3-4x the recommended servings.   Read more...

“You will need to marry five men then."

Said Mama, with a poker face and without looking at me. She kept knitting calmly while I sat there with my mouth agape. I looked at her expressionless face and noticed the suppressed smile hovering at the corner of her mouth. From her face, I gauged that she was aware of my torrent of questions that she knew would follow her declaration, and was waiting for me to speak first.

This happened some two decades ago, when arranged marriages were quite prevalent in India and mama told me that they have looked for a match and I must be prepared to get married soon.   Read more...

Life shows “me” that “Eyes” and “Me’s” don’t really matter. What so called individuals want isn’t what happens, what needs to happen and what makes us happy. Happiness seems to fall on to people, in unexpected moments, in unexpected ways and certainly not when worked on by “I’s”.   Read more...

This is a call for license plates from around the world! If you see a license plate bearing witness to peace in any aspect, will you send it to me please at SeedsDrCorso@comcast.net? We want to see if we can get them from all 50 states of the U.S.A. and all the countries of the world. So far, we’ve covered Virginia and Massachusetts.   Read more...

Waves of information overload the senses. Awkward truths encourage many to get comfortably numb. Then technology lands us in a strange place, some off-beat world, where legislators sit stunned into silence as the whole of society turns itself upside down.

Now we think sideways and sort by opportunity. We talk in metaphors, because the source-code for public discourse has been hijacked by fanatics. There are no procedures for these circumstances, no maps for these territories. A mediated reality has infused us with simultaneously a sense of loss and a sense of excitement. It is as though the moment has gripped us and won’t let go.   Read more...

Some days, you just won’t feel like working out. Maybe you haven’t been able to get as much sleep as you need or you've been having some stress at work or in your personal life. No matter the reason, sometimes you just aren’t in the mood for moving and sweating. Whenever this happens to you, try these strategies for working up the desire to hit the gym:

Remind Yourself of Your Goals - Start thinking about why you started exercising in the first place and what the end results will be. Do you want to lose a certain amount of weight? Get more toned? Have more energy? A quick reminder of why exercise is important to you can be just the motivation that you need to eek out another set of reps.   Read more...

When I gave motivational speeches to nuclear scientists many years ago, I used to ask them all a question.

Do you think world peace is a good idea?

To a person, they all thought it was rhetorical—every single time. I had to assure them that I didn’t ask rhetorical questions, and I always asked it aloud a second time.

Do you think world peace is a good idea?

A mixed alto and soprano rumble usually began in the room amongst the women present, those who carried into life the sons and daughters who might have to go to war in a world crisis. Then the men in the room would jump on the theoretical bandwagon and agree. The rumble got some tenor and basso notes.   Read more...

Sasaya is a small rural village in Northeastern Japan. It consists of one street with houses on both sides. Behind these long narrow homes runs a river, which considerately divides itself to flow on both sides of the street. The water is crisp and cool, coming straight off the mountain. Locals use it as is for drinking and cooking. And since it never freezes, despite the rugged winters in that area, it is appreciatively used year round.

Behind this small fast-flowing river are huge vegetable patches bursting with summer produce that bring tomatoes and cucumbers, onions and squash, daikon and potatoes to the family table. Since the one and only supermarket is a long drive away, homegrown food is a fact of life, as it has been for centuries.   Read more...

One thing is to read statistics: "One out of every three French farmers has problems finding a partner", or "20% Of the French say their pessimism towards the future economy prevents them from having any children."

Another thing is to cycle from the Netherlands to Stes Maries de la Mer and see it all for yourself. Having left Luxembourg and its posh behind, we faced sheer emptiness. Thousands of acres of maize fields give way to even bigger fields of wheat, sometimes sunflowers to break the dull. In between little villages; five, six houses around a church.   Read more...

Circumstances can seem to run the show in our lives. This happens so that happens. That happens so I do this. Circumstances can also supply the gift of boundaries to us.

My thesis project in college involved directing a play. As a senior, I had first dibs on whatever space I wanted to use. I was offered a black box theater that I could arrange any way I wanted. It could have been proscenium, three-quarter, in the round. I was paralyzed by the choices.   Read more...

Who knew there was a merchant association for purveyors of peace-related paraphernalia? Not me. I found it on the Bark for Peace site and it made me laugh out loud with delight. Check out their members: www.peacemerchantsassociation.org

I found ribbons, magnets, mugs, t-shirts, bumper stickers, soaps, books, buttons and more. The genuine more isn’t more stuff though—it’s more people like me who have and are realizing day by day that what we all [all, no exceptions] want is peace. It’s a universal goal. We may not all agree on how to get there, but we can figure that part out. We are figuring that part out daily.   Read more...

Rent-a-cop runs but has all the odds against him as W pushes off for extra speed, then pops his tail and plants his skateboard on the handrail. Backside smithgrind, slightly tweaked. Rent-a-cop sees a combination of private and public transgressions. W thanks his predecessors for sanding off the skatestoppers. As the board slides, the trucks grind and sends up a beat. Too bad there’s no fisheye to capture this. Sponsors pay good money for close encounters.

Curve corner, clear gap and he’s back on track. Some claimed that his reputation as a skateboarder would flip into a disadvantage in the field. But group dynamics are tricky to ride. You need image of self, or at least a cloke.   Read more...

In Asia the Goddess of Mercy and Compassion is an integral part of daily life. Most often she is called Kwan-Yin in China, Avalokitesvara in India, or Kannon in Japanese, but there are other names as well. Sometimes, too, this divine being takes on masculine expression. But no matter the form, this beloved entity always shows deep, unconditional love for all manifestations of life.

She comes in many images, the most captivating of which has a halo of 1000 arms fanning out from around her body. This multitude of appendages makes a perfect circle of all embracing Love radiating out from the Heart center of the divine. No one or nothing is ever left out, no matter how imperfect they may be.   Read more...

The video which appears below was posted on a friend’s Facebook page. It features British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley and his extraordinary journey to create one calendar day a year for peace. That day has been established as September 21st.

Watch Jeremy and then I’ll share my observations:   Read more...

BarkForPeace.com is about people and their pets. It’s a sweet, whimsical website that serves as a tasty reminder of the absolute fact that there is no such thing as a small act of peace. Here’s some of their copy.   Read more...

I rejoiced at the news that former Colombian Presidential Candidate Ingrid Betancourt had been released after being taken as a hostage by FARC rebels more than six years ago.

Ingrid was abducted in February 2002 while she was campaigning for president as the candidate for the Colombian Green Party. Prior to her run for the Presidency Ingrid has been elected to the Colombian Chamber of Representatives and Senate, campaigning against corruption and for peace and social justice. Her first campaign distributed condoms, with the motto that she would be like a condom against corruption.   Read more...

Do you know the difference between a harper and a harpist? How about a fiddler and a violinist? If you did not know before, you have probably figured it out already. A harper and fiddler play traditional tunes, whereas a harpist and violinist play orchestral music.

Such interesting tidbits I learn from my friend Markio, who is an Irish harper. She is only in her early 30’s, but is finding herself in a budding career that she never dreamed of.   Read more...

I’m a believer in broadcasting my message. That’s part of the reason all my Ode posts are peace-themed. This week someone sent me an invitation to link to his air shoes site. Air shoes? I checked it out and found the image above. Ah. Peace sneaks. That I can do. Here’s what he says about them:

“Vans recently released the “Peace Pack,” which features a Sk8 Hi, Slip On, and a Old Skool. This pack may remind you of their “Hippie Pack” from last year. But the “Peace Pack” is all about the peace sign logo.   Read more...

We're sitting in a circle in the beautiful back-garden of The Hub in Rotterdam. The 17 students that started this journey. People of all sorts. Entrepreneurs. Artists. DJ's. Jean-sellers. Farmers. Psychologists. All united with our year of common history. Year of highs and lows. Year of extreme experiences. An intense year. And just like that, it's over. I doubt that it had even occurred to all of us that this moment would be the good bye moment. The moment where our paths dissemble for the summer. All our focus had been on wrapping up the year by securing next years beginning; selecting a Team 2. We had forgotten that our year was now ending.

As the birds sang in the trees, birds that I do not recognize, foreign birds that don't live in my hometown, in my country, and a cat tip-toed between our wooden chairs we realized that this was our ending ceremony. Unplanned we just sat in a circle and shared. Shared our concerns. Shared our wins. Shared our losses. Shared support. Shared gratitude.   Read more...

We grew up in a typical hippy environment: vegetables in our backyard, self-knitted sweaters for Christmas and hiking outings with like-minded families, all together in a bus.

The more our parents cooked buckwheat, soy and parsnip, the more pocket money we took to the candy store. Few days went by without protest against our being 'different'. "They never have this at Sandra's place!" "Why can't you wear normal clothes?"   Read more...

Visions of calico dresses and poke bonnets, wagon trains, prairies and the wild, wild west? Me too. Pioneer brings that up. Bizarrely or not, the word comes from Old French and means a foot-soldier. I’m not too enchanted to link the idea of soldiers with peace, but consider this news from The Student Peace Alliance on the Web.

“We are so proud and excited to share this news! Ben & Jerry's, the Vermont-based socially conscious ice-cream maker, announced today at its New York City Times Square Scoop Shop that Aaron Voldman, Executive Director of the Student Peace Alliance (SPA) and Board Member of The Peace Alliance, is one of two nationwide winners of its "Peace Pioneer" contest.   Read more...

My sister Joyce Tannian is my hero.

So many of us, myself included, aspire to help others, to make a difference in the world and often get tied-up in our daily lives. My company manages engineers, producers and musicians, but we’re not solving world peace or providing solutions for the energy crisis.   Read more...

The crowd surges, hands grazing for the dreamscape overhead, its pulse locked into the synthesized loop spinning from the dj's drumkit. Dorothy tends bar, gently rejecting pleas for sex and pouring cocktails for comfort. She stares peacefully at a virtual representation of a Mayan witch-doctor dancing across the club in mid air.

For the past few weeks she has been working double shifts. Turns out her course credits are in direct proportion to her bank's. So she skipped this semester’s exams and allowed herself some time to decide on a Master for next year. But it's hard to think that far ahead. It's hard to think past the case which is about to come to justice or which might boomerang around the corner and stop her dead.   Read more...

For ten years now, I’ve sent a spiritual email every Friday to a growing mailing list. I call the gratis publication Seeds. My Seeds were originally inspired by Emmet Fox, the great metaphysician. His books are compilations of his miniature essays. What I wanted to do was write a sort of reminder of the spiritual approach to life to get people through the weekend. Anyway, ten years is a long time, and I can’t imagine stopping now.   Read more...

First of all ... congrats for Obama! I would have been happy with Clinton running for president, but I always felt Obama had more to offer. And let's face it, the states need a decent president. I have faith in Barak, but that scares me a bit as well. Because we know what frequently happens to charismatic leaders that want and are able to do too much positive change: they get shot by some individual lunatic that has no connections whatsoever with others (that's hard to believe isn't it?!).

But for us all, I hope he wins and changes the world for the better. I hope he can rise above the fear and temptations and make us proud of being humans and that he restores faith in politics.   Read more...

For the most part Japanese people are focused on new things. They are hooked by the latest gadgets, the most recent conveniences, up-to-the-minute fashions, modernized homes, and the newest model cars. The latest. The best. Image. Identity.

On rare occasions, however, I get to meet someone outside that focused desire for material newness. The other day I was invited to a young couple’s home in the country. The husband, Ken, grew up in Tokyo. He was always fascinated by Spain, so after high school headed there for a stint to learn about life and himself. About other cultures, too. And in the process how to cook Iberian dishes. Later he returned to Japan and worked in various offices, even for a local government. But his heart was always in the countryside. He had loved animals and the out-of-doors since he was a child. And the longer he worked in offices, the more he longed for the country.   Read more...

I like to know something about the sources of quotes I read so Wikipedia has become my best Internet friend. This quote came to me this week, apropos I think, for my one-year Ode blogging anniversary.

When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace. J. Lubbock   Read more...

Africa is poor. There is a high unemployment rate. People are uneducated. Food is scarce. Environment is a big mess.

 So cool that the situation in Rotterdam is nearly perfect. Take a look at the Duysstraat this morning:   Read more...

Yippee! At long last, I am not a lone voice crying in the wilderness. There are others who take peace seriously—seriously enough to call for a National Peace Academy. It will be a place to investigate peace, to study peace, to learn to practice peace. And do we need it!

Here’s just a taste from their website. Their prose is below, my additions are in blue.

The Academy founders recognize that peace is serious business, requiring rigorous study and discipline. If done right, it will save America money and lives.   Read more...

Many of us have handed over our health and well being to an outsider called the ‘good doctor’. In effect, we have given up an innate capability of healing ourselves when something goes out of balance in our body. This capability comes through our own belief system. As with anything, if we believe we can, it may come true and if we believe otherwise, that will come true too. This is true for our health too.   Read more...

I walk the path of a warrior and settle on enemy ground. Take on their color, logic and language. Dance with their daughters. Make notes in the dark. Daylight comes early and breathes life into the apartment. The sun casts a nostalgic glow on the books as they stand row upon row upon row. The harddrive hums attentively, hosting a fresh batch of downloads. Sleeping in the apartment is like crashing in an airport holding room. Ghosts of globalization drifting in and out.

I wake to the sound of thunder as the DINKIES upstairs throw their morning fit. The one advantage to freelancing is that it strips life to its core disciplines, my morning ritual now burned into my physiology. It is as though I am released into the day from a deep stage of hypnosis, my subconscious mind fully functional as my conscious mind still searches for a point of recognition.   Read more...

Bulungula Lodge is perched on a small hill where the Bulungula River spills into the Indian Ocean at the fringe of a remote Xhosa village, Nqileni, in the Eastern Cape. It’s part of that majestic land known as the Wild Coast.

High tide comes swiftly on the beach, but if you plan your day well, you can spend hours roaming the ocean’s edge without seeing another soul. Swathes of vibrant shells decorate the shore and farther from the water, tangled knots of trees dig into the sand, transforming the beach to forest. Occasional goats, cows, and donkeys relax in the trees’ shade.   Read more...

Japan has a reputation of holding women back. But women here have a way of holding their own. Despite their demure manners and deferring behavior, they can be astonishingly strong. For the most part they are hardworking, unafraid of making decisions and of sticking by them. Also most often they will be enthusiastically contributing members of any group they belong to. “We do our best in whatever we are called upon to do,” they will tell you.

Many strong, focused women of ambition choose to start their own enterprises, rather than be trapped in the often limiting, ritual-strangling, demeaning jobs that a regular company has to offer. One such person, Miyoko, is a perfect example. She started low, observed, learned, held onto her dream, and worked her way up to where she is now, the owner of a fine study-abroad company.   Read more...

Last weekend, the new Cultivation Team of the international learning network Pioneers of Change (http://pioneersofchange.net/) met in Copenhagen to define their purpose for the upcoming year.

We kicked-off the weekend with a round of sharing our life stories and our connection to Pioneers of Change. I had been introduced to Pioneers of Change when I was on the Board of AIESEC in Germany (www.aiesec.de). I heard the name in the office and that the network had been set up by some AIESEC Alumni. It took me 3 years to engage with the network in Amsterdam. I was working with Greenpeace International then and a colleague from Kenya invited me to join the local “Personal Sustainability” conversations (http://pioneersofchange.net/communities/sustainability/scneth/).   Read more...

This is how it feels like at the moment, being totally submerged in our may projects. One month of working on assignments from our various partners of the school, one month of showing what we learned during the first year, one month of being in a team with 3 or 4 people instead of our usual 17. Silence at school, lots of activity outside. Exciting!

I heard of movies being shot, meetings held at the beach, interviews being done and websites being set up.   Read more...

Patrick Ireland is dead! Long live the Irish Peace!

A Thursday, May 22, 2008 article in the Art & Design section of The New York Times tells the story of Patrick Ireland’s funeral. He was 36.   Read more...

When you say trains I think Siberia Express, endless tracks in snowtopped mountains, philosophical discussions with long pauses, excited anticipation of what will reveal itself around the next corner. I feel the rhythmic movement of the carriages that empties my head of thoughts.

When I use trains lately I experience crowds of hurried people, long lines in front of the ticket machine, loud phone conversations about things as interesting as the state of someones plants, the smell of fries mixed with sweat and sticky seats. I read that commuters experience more stress than the average soldier in Afghanistan. I believe it.   Read more...

I am a tree person because a Giant Sequoia saved my life. Twenty years ago I was pregnant—delightedly so—and in my heart of hearts, I knew something was dreadfully wrong with my child. It was one of the hardest times of my life.

On a cross country trip wherein we stopped at almost every single rest stop, pregnancy being what it is, we stayed in Eureka, California and communed with the redwoods. There, despite my certainty that something was wrong, one of the mother trees made something right for me.   Read more...

KaosPilots talk. KaosPilots act. KaosPilots do. KaosPilots sing. KaosPilots dance. KaosPilots co-create. KaosPilots smile. KaosPilots laugh. KaosPilots cry. KaosPilots sing Siyahamba when they're exhausted. KaosPilots pretend to be Samurais. KaosPilots gather freckles on their nose. KaosPilots play. KaosPilots care. KaosPilots tell stories. KaosPilots fight. KaosPilots travel. KaosPilots visit. KaosPilots invite. KaosPilots party. KaosPilots make maps. KaosPilots feed worms. KaosPilots shoot footage. KaosPilots applaud. KaosPilots welcome new friends. KaosPilots love. KaosPilots fall in love. KaosPilots entertain. KaosPilots give insights. KaosPilots surprise. KaosPilots help. KaosPilots do espressos. KaosPilots drink Mojitos. KaosPilots involve. KaosPilots get involved. KaosPilots listen. KaosPilots shout. KaosPilots change.

…and now they blog.   Read more...

I have been thinking about what to write next for Ode. I have been playing with several things I have experienced or seen recently. But when trying to write something I found myself lacking a specific conclusion or goal in the story. The writing seemed a blurry, messy thing without direction, something not well defined. Which I, and most others, find annoying to read.

One focused message that I was able to draw from this mess is that the mind always asks us for a conclusion, a message or idea of what is true. It has to be short and easy to remember so that the world makes sense. This is kind of contrary to what the world actually is, the world isn’t fittable in a two sentence formula. Unconsciously we always let ourselves be run by a theory (or feeling, which is basically the same) and if one is not convincingly there we feel totally lost. We are addicted to theories and think we are right and important and in control if we have one that we believe in.   Read more...

The well-known Peace Symbol was designed in 1958. This year is its 50th birthday.

Wikipedia says, “This forked symbol was designed for the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) and was adopted as its badge by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in Britain, and originally was used by the British nuclear disarmament movement. It was later generalized to become an international icon for the 1960s anti-war movement, and was also adopted by the counterculture of the time.   Read more...

When we talk about HIV and AIDS, more often than not it’s about the incredible numbers of who’ve died or who are now infected with the disease.

We think of the pandemic in somewhat monolithic terms. But the pandemic is in fact a series of epidemics, which affect people and the communities in which they live in different ways.   Read more...

Practice makes perfect, we all know this. What it has meant to me as a spiritual counselor for the past twenty-five years is that I look constantly for things that make for conscious spiritual praxis. One came to me the other day.

What if every time you received, read, wrote, deleted or sent an email, you first said aloud to yourself, “Peace?”   Read more...

Ted has been my friend for well over thirty years. But curiously, I have never met him. I get a very gentle magazine called “Fellowship in Prayer”, and once long ago they asked if subscribers would like to correspond with prisoners. Of course, I said yes. And that is how Ted and I got connected.

I have never asked my friend what he did to land himself in prison. I felt it was not important unless he wanted to tell me. He never has. And I respect his privacy and dignity in this matter. So, Ted and I relate on more hope-filled dimensions than the mistakes of the past.   Read more...

I saw a great movie yesterday (again). The peaceful warrior. For those who don't know it, it's about a student athlete preparing for the Olympics qualifiers. He is just like most people, a thinker, restless and plagued by ambition and the fear of not being able to reach his goals. He finds a master in the gas station clerk, which he calls Socrates because he won't tell him his name. He shows him the way of living in the here and now, beyond the thoughts and feelings that trouble us and blind us. The gymnast is still quite rebellious and challenges Socrates ideas.   Read more...

Okay, I admit it, I’m up past my eyeballs in a new computer and things are not going as swimmingly as promised. Let’s leave brands and operating systems out of this equation. My situation prompted a question for me.

Does technology foster peace?   Read more...

"Are you looking for peace and harmony on the Internet? Enter Seiwa-en where you can experience such quietude. This garden is a project of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, designed by 'Koichi Kawana, M.F.A, Ph.D., a native of Japan and Principal Architecture Associate and lecturer in Japanese art, architecture and landscape design at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kawana Sensei not only designed Seiwa-en but also supervised its construction and development until his death in 1990. Here's your opportunity to experience this 'wet strolling garden' in the solitude of your home and maybe even develop a few ideas of your own for recreating a similar masterpiece in your own backyard!"   Read more...

Until the current global grain shortage the issue of hunger had largely slipped from the rich world’s consciousness. But the food crisis being reported in our papers and on our televisions isn’t a strange blip that will go away. It’s a reminder that hunger is a real and persistent issue for the billion people worldwide who live on less than a dollar a day.

Malnutrition in mothers and their young children will claim 3.5 million lives this year and millions more will survive but fail to thrive because of chronic food shortages.   Read more...

Ernest Holmes was the founder of a scientific, practical movement of Christianity called Science of Mind. He was a prolific student of all religions, all philosophies and all ideas of his time. The practice was a synthesis of his thinking. He wrote the words below.

In this peace that holds me so gently,
I find strength and protection from all fear or anxiety.
It is in the peace of God in which I feel the love of a Holy Presence.   Read more...

This is the final section of this series honoring my father. The reason I chose to write about him in the first place was because many of the values he espoused might do well being reinstated. They could possibly blend happily into today’s world, which in many ways is seeking a new identity and connection to its emerging soul.   Read more...

If you’re reading this post, like me you probably spend too much time on the internet, much of it contributing to online communities of shared interest. As exciting as it sometimes is to find people with similar views and interests online I’m not always confident that my virtual networks are going to amount to much.

Social Innovation Camp (www.sicamp.org) is interested in addressing exactly that issue: how the online world can be used to create better solutions to social problems in the real world.   Read more...

There's a thin line between action figure and father figure. And when it comes to kicking fatherly ass, Steven Seagal is your daddy. Off-screen he is an actual Aikido sensei, the first Gajin to open a dojo in Japan. He tests his students with the famous three man attack.

If we follow Seagal we learn that for young men anger and sometimes aggression are perfectly natural things. But they have been pushed to the edges of what we call civilization. It's great to want to be civilized, but what about the impulse? Violence dominates the media and we seem to have projected all our darkest urges onto 'the bad guy'. Only there are no protectors, no heroes, no rolemodels. Some critics complain that young men have lost their manhood. Have we no anger? Are we not men? What is a man? This lack of definition seems to be at the core of our current existential crisis. Let me answer that question, bluntly and honestly, the way real men do.   Read more...

I went to visit some friends this weekend. I live with my girlfriend in Campinas, Brasil, it’s an 1.5 hour drive to our friend’s house in Sao Paulo. There are three of them living together, two girls and a gay guy, right in the middle of this enormous city. It’s always great to go there, the atmosphere is really relaxed. When I visit I always get a specific feeling that I also got in the Netherlands when visiting another gay friend there.   Read more...

Rev. Jesse Jennings, writing in Science of Mind magazine, says, “The world is seeking to sow peace, not just as the ending of open hostilities, but as a durable, perpetual field of play in which mutual respect and understanding are the norm.”

I liked his idea particularly since it gives the world a soul. “The world itself is seeking to sow peace . . . .” Delicious.   Read more...

Another touching story that shows my father

Writing in Science of Mind, April 2008, Rev. Jane Beach, minister of the Conscious Living Center in Mt. View, California, says,

It�s a sunny day despite all the previous week�s rain. We pull up onto the rutted, muddy roadside and park. If it weren�t for the rough dirt roads, the neighbourhood could pass for a middle-class neighbourhood in western Europe. A driveway pattern of black and maroon bricks leads up to an impressive house.

This is where Cecilia lives. I�ve been invited to a celebration for her youngest daughter, whose initiation into womanhood concludes today. Cecilia and her family are Ndebele, the ethnic group whose brightly coloured geometric painting and beadwork has come to represent South African art around the globe.   Read more...

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, visionary, science fiction writer, inventor and a good human being passed away on 19th March 2008 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, his adopted home. In many ways, Arthur was responsible for us to stay in Sri Lanka and establish a solar power business in the late 1980s. He was always there to encourage and help us even when we would get discouraged by the various obstacles that were in the way. He was a good friend and we will miss him and so will the world.

It was the summer of 1977 and I was on holiday in Sri Lanka from Canada with my cousin Viren. We had just stumbled into the table tennis room of the Otters Sports Club in Colombo and saw this European playing a hard game of TT banishing his young opponents away. As we stood there, he challenged us for a game and sent us away in no time too. After the game when we asked him whether he was on holiday here, he said - �Oh no, I live here, write a few books and do a bit of diving� only to realize he was Arthur C Clarke, the science fiction writer made real famous recently by �2001, A Space Odyssey�.   Read more...

As I write this, it is Easter Sunday in the Christian calendar. I was intrigued to read the ideas of Marshall Breger, professor of law at the Catholic University of America, reprinted in Utne Reader from Moment, an independent magazine of Jewish politics, culture, and religion, on statecraft, diplomacy and religion.

First I must cop to my own religious status. I would call myself an omnireligionist despite being an ordained minister with a doctorate in divinity. Translation: I don

I've just had the privilege of visiting refugee camps in Dadaab, Kenya, as part of my work with Book Aid International (www.bookaid.org).

Home to over 170,000 people the camps have provided a safe haven for refugees fleeing conflict for over 15 years, starting with the flight of people from neighbouring Somalia in 1991. The majority of people living in the camps are still Somali, though there are also refugees from Sudan, Uganda, the Congo and other countries in conflict. Many have lived in Dadaab for over a decade, unable to return to homes still embroiled in chaos.   Read more...

The email was innocent enough. Sent by a well-meaning and always interesting friend, I opened it. Here is part of his text to me . . .

Hi Friends,   Read more...

I decided I want to be more social, make more friends and be less ego-centric. I notice that I don't feel good when if I

My father, an old fashion country doctor, used to make house calls to farms near our town. On days when we kids were not in school, we were allowed to accompany him. Farms are terrific places for youngsters to wear off excess energy. So, we would run and play in the fields, peer at animals in the barn, scramble up haystacks, climb fences, and swim in the creeks. We city kids rode cows and rubbed horses

I have recently written on my personal blog about North America

International Women

How old do you have to be to have grown up with the internet, cell phones, text-messaging, social community sites, collaborative sites (wikis), and interactive games? As more and more of you, who have been so reared, enter the work world, the harder and harder it will be for organizations to attempt to manage you by command and control methods. That lesson came clear to the USA Army, according to Steven Mains and Laura W. Geller in their article "Freeing Ideas from Their Silos," in strategy&business' current on-line magazine (http://www.strategy-business.com/li/leadingideas/li00062)   Read more...

Every year, thousands of children arrive to California. These students along with first and second-generation American students look for educational spaces willing to embrace their cultural diversity. Inner-city schools respond to these needs in three different ways. The majority of schools promote a pure assimilation/acculturation to the mainstream culture. Occasionally, the schools

Even though Ode