Volume 3, Issue 1

Dreams to Reality:
Creating the Life You Want

Brand New Audio Recording
"Learning to Live by Design"
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"I experienced a sense of calm, a reminder to keep perspective, permission to feel emotions throughout the process of transitioning from the worst fear to an appreciation of new opportunities."

LIVING BY DESIGN NEWSLETTER
by Leslie Karen Sann, MA, LCPC
V3, #3
March 17, 2003

IN THIS ISSUE

THE PROCESS OF PEACE

How can we empower ourselves to be a creative force of peace in a world that is full of talk of war? What can one person do to make a difference in the current political climate. How can I be part of the process of peace?

For me it is recognizing that peace is always present. Peace lives within each of us. It is not something outside of us. Peace is an inner process.

Peace is a choice and it is available to each one of us no matter what the outer circumstances.

Peace is the cessation of againstness. When we find ourselves arguing with what is, we are in againstness. We have decided that what is happening should not be happening. We are creating suffering and turmoil within. This is not peace. We cannot argue for peace. We cannot fight for peace. We make peace by practicing acceptance.

Peace is a choice. And each of us is faced with that choice right now. What we choose does matter. Each one of us makes a difference. Accepting and choosing. Accepting the world the way it is and choosing to make a difference by where we place our focus, how we participate in our lives.

Acceptance is not compliance, it is power. Our authentic power to choose where to place our focus. By choosing peace we become peaceful, and we give the essence of our peace into the world.

We have a great opportunity to be part of the process of peace. Each one of us can be a channel for, an instrument of peace. That is what we can do. This is where we have influence. "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me."

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POEMS:

WAGE PEACE
by Mary Oliver

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble, breathe out whole buildings and
flocks of redwing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and
freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening; hearing sirens,
pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.

Don't wait another minute.

AN AGENDA FOR THE FUTURE
by Dr. Robert Muller
former assistant secretary general of the United Nation

Decide to be peaceful
render others peaceful

Be a model of peace
Irradiate your peace

Love passionably the peace
of our beautiful planet

Do not listen to the warmongers,
hateseeders and powerseekers

Dream always of a peaceful,
warless, disarmed world

Think always of a peaceful world
Work always for a peaceful world
Switch on and keep on, in yourself,
the peaceful buttons,
those marked love,
serenity, happiness, truth,
kindness, friendliness,
understanding and tolerance

Pray and thank God every day for peace
Pray for the United Nations
and all peacemakers

Pray for the leaders of nations
who hold the peace of the world
in their hands

Pray God to let our planet at long last
become the Planet of Peace And sing in unison with all humanity:

"Let there be peace on Earth And let it begin with me."

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PRACTICALLY SPEAKING:

breathe in deeply, all the way into your belly
breathe out fully
let your breath take you to the peace that lives within
when you notice yourself pulled out of your peace and into turmoil, shift your focus again to your breath and let your breath guide you back to your peace
notice the peace that already is
appreciate the blessings that already are
focus on beauty, love and gratitude
remember the bounty of your life
share your blessings with others
Conclude with the questions: "Now what? What next?" and move yourself into self care actions of support and loving.

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WONDER QUESTIONS:

where in your life are you not peaceful?
how can you shift your againstness to acceptance?
how can you be an instrument of peace?

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c Copyright 2003 by Leslie Karen Sann, Living by Design
Visit this link for contact information:
leslie@living-bydesign.com

Reprint permission granted in part or whole when the following credit appears in full:

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