The First Night of a Month of Peace Activism in D.C>

Arrived at the Pink House in D.C. around 8:30 p.m. So now I’m posting what I wrote earlier in the day.

Greetings Friends and Foes,

I’m writing as I fly toward D.C. I am unsure what sort of connection to the internet I will have for the next several days, So I will do what I am doing right now. I will compose when I can and post when I can.

I’m not sure what tomorrow holds for me. (Are we ever?) I think it will primarily be internet and coffee until I plan out all the things I have as yet to find out about, then I believe there will be a meeting of women later in the day to put together the Walk in Their Shoes display that will be out on the 26th. I sent a couple pair of teenager shoes with Zanne and I have two infant sets with me. I still have to tag them with the names of infants killed in the Iraq War. These are real souls who left this world violently and unjustly. I miss my daughter already, and she is alive and well. To think of the heartache of her being gone breaks my heart. I cannot imagine what the lose of a child must be like. I hugged her goodbye this morning as she went off to school. I think she knows I am doing this for her. For her future. For all children’s futures. I am leaving my home for a month during a year that I really did not want to travel. She is 17. There are not many more months when she will live under my roof. I hate to give up spending one of those with her, but I must. This war is wrong. The visuals of masses of citizens marching should send a clear signal that there are people who feel so passionately about the need for our Representatives and Senators to stop this war, no matter what they must do in order to accomplish that, that they will come all the way across the country to march and meet with Congressional staffers.

I’m reading two books right now. One is about writing biography – the biography of women. The other contains small mindfulness “talks” about peace, being peace, creating peace, breathing peace by Thich Naht Hahn.

These two works are almost diametrically opposed at one level, but I am bringing them together, into peace, within my being. Learning from them both. Seeing them both. This provides excellent practice for the tasks that probably comprise my path this next month. I am not going to worry about them or even plan them out too much as I need to live in the moment and listen to my heart and notice all that is around me so that I may seize on positive action. CODEPINK was originally about bring the creative feminine into play in our world FOR Peace. I strongly believe that we must not fall into opposition or anger. We can only change things through individual action. The fierce gentle hand of mother Gaia contains us. We are her, and we must strive to live up to the wonder that is the miracle of life and breath and self organized existence. War and violence has no place in this world. Our self awareness is a rare gift – we can get beyond the aggressive territorial ape aspect of our being and consciously, mindfully become gentle and cooperative beings. We can. We will. We are. Starting at this very moment. Be Here Now.

Namaste.