We Pledge ...

Small “Zones Of Peace Action Step #1:

Create small “zones of peace” everywhere you go, everyday in everyway.

TIP -- Be particularly invested in others of your choice who are making that same pledge. And, together, taking whatever actions appropriately go with that pledge!

Remember my stories about snakes and snakey behavior? Everyone that you encounter is not at the same degree of commitment or skill for doing the work of climbing the Mountain of Awe -- and -- building “zones of peace.”

Do your best wherever you go. Yet be particularly involved with those who make this pledge – “To create small “zones of peace” everyday in everyway.” As Dory, the fish in “Finding Nemo” repeated, again and again,

“Just keep swimming.”

I Pledge ....

On my honor, to do my best to uphold the values and principles I believe this country was founded on. In keeping with the values and principles of the New Horizons Small “Zones Of Peace” Project I do my best, each and every day, to help create small “zones of peace” wherever I go.

How about you? Is this a pledge you are living by each and every day?

Small “Zones Of Peace Action Step #1

Create small “zones of peace”  everywhere you go, everyday in everyway.

YES!

WE are getting it together on the ground level.

And, WE are heading for "awe." The formula almost always remains the same – find the elegant solution by –

1. Thinking outside the box;

2. Looking for win-win solutions;

3. Keep on keeping on, talking and listening;

4. Reminding yourself that you live in a world of abundance, not scarcity.

A most unexpected – and – appreciated consultation with a visiting “expert brought the magic of living in this attitude sphere home to me yesterday out here at our remodeling-in-progress retreat center in the mountains. We are not as far ahead on our projects as we would like to be. With this needed and that needed, etc. etc., it can get a bit overwhelming at times.

Now -- with the weather growing chillier day-by-day, I’ve been more than a bit concerned at times about my house-part of our retreat center. Given the sky high chimney repair estimate offered to get our wood burning stoves safely functioning, I have been doing my best lately to surrender to the notion that I might be living one step above camping out this winter; a tiny spec just above survival.

But -- just in the nick of time, “knight in shining armor,” Sue’s husband, Paul, a former plumber, arrived on the scene. With a gift of generously donating his time and talents to providing us with a detailed assessment of what needs to be done to winterize the dwelling that houses both me and our main meeting room out here.

Paul came bearing gifts of much needed advice on this, that and the other thing (i.e. particularly about plumbing and how to keep our water pipes warm and from bursting with our stoves (our main source of heat) not usable right now). For the far-reaches of my still recovering Jewish American Princess turned mountain woman mind, the whole of what he was suggesting was, indeed, quite daunting though his wisdom was scrumptious.

Yet, simply having Paul’s presence out here was a victory all by itself. Having spousal support for what one does is almost always a good thing don’tcha think? Particularly having man-type guidance for a remodeling project that some days relies soley on Sue’s hard work, commitment and knowledge and our shared “girly” tool box. At times, I am barely any help at all. However, I do own up to being able to make a hardy contribution with the chain saw when I’ve got a working stove that can burn the products of my labors.

Paul’s visit was truly a victory for our mission on so many levels. Most of all (not to minimize the expertise) his presence in being with us.

Thank you, Paul!

Thank you so much for your TIME and your TALENT. (And, couldn’t I please just make you a bowl of my grandmother’s special chicken soup recipe to show my appreciation – as well as my regrets for borrowing your wife at times you would really prefer her to be using her time otherwise.)

Another victory for my challenged, I can-barely-change-a-light bulb mind was the extensive blueprint Sue and I hammered out, co-creatively, on how best for us to proceed with our remodeling over the coming, possibly harsh months ahead.

The result of all this bounty -- I was delightfully surprised, after yesterday’s challenging, mind-stretching endeavors, I woke up happy and empowered; my house was bathed in toasty, warmth that yesterday I would not have known how to create on the limited resources with which we are presently operating.

Thanks to Paul’s guidance to make a few immediate changes and Sue’s hard work, generosity, wisdom and committment to furthering this project, we had – hopefully -- found some immediate, not- going-to-kill-us-with-the-electric-company "elegant solutions."

Still in all I would welcome a cozy, fireside chat out here as soon as possible.

From Anastasia

In the mountains where it is getting chillier and chillier

Let's Talk Turkey

New blog posting at --

http://anastasiastoryteller.blogspot.com/2010/11/now-be-thankful.html

Check it out! Your comments invited.

Who’s Walking The Walk?

Well, it’s pretty much official in all voting precincts now; the winners and the losers. And what the “talking heads” think about it all. Them – and the Monday morning quarterbacks.

But it’s not really all that newsy when you think about it. When you’re playing a win-lose game, it’s all pretty much the same in the end; there will be winners and there will be losers. The former will do certain unsurprising things as will the latter.

So what’s new? What is most predictable is that there will be a lot of “them- ing;” – my new word for finger pointing. And, not nearly enough “me-ing” -- another new verb I offer the English language, particularly as spoken in the United States. Gloria, my best day-by-day critic and purveyor of inspiration, offers another suggestion, “How about “US-ing?” she quipped this morning.

Almost everyone around recognizes we are in a crisis here in the U.S.A.. A crisis we had hoped might be turned to the good by Obama. Even those of us, like myself, who were too jaded by Washington politics to put much faith in a change of administration.

I, for one, would have been joyfully surprised, if he could have pulled it off. Nonetheless, to date this has been a pie in the sky dream; Obama as another Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The let down brings to my mind an old ‘70s tee shirt I wore until it was practically in shreds: It read – “I have abandoned my search for reality and am now looking for a good fantasy.”

Joking aside, I know – “not know about, but know it,” to borrow an expressed stance of Murat’s -- that lying somewhere between reality and imagination, there are realistic models abounding that can get us to peace. Win-win ways of living life on this planet. Lots of folks (including myself and my supporters) have been developing, polishing and re-polishing them for decades.

Many of these models even have thousands of years of people living in peace (relatively) behind them. As does the New Horizons Small “Zones of Peace” model. The New Horizons Small “Zones Of Peace” Project has one to offer that’s been evolving for close to forty years.

And, that doesn’t even begin counting in the teacher and mentors that came before it. I promise that our model “works, if you work it.” I know because I have lived it. Not nearly enough, however. Or, with enough people. But enough to know that peace, day-by-day can be a win-win reality.

Have you got a peace action model that works? And, the leadership, support – and – commitment to guide it? Tell us about it here, if you do.

Please!

Put your money where your mouth is. No more “them-ing.” And, “me-ing” isn’t enough!

Not even your prayers, solitary or communal, are enough. The call now is for action; people together action – grassroots action, small "zones of peace: action. We cannot rely on our leadership! Isn't that the reality as you know it?
Let’s go for the “us-ing.” We, the “silent majority,” have no need to remain silent, complaining or passive. Sue and I – and – our friends and supporters are now moving into action through our New Horizons Small “Zones Of Peace” approach.

How about you? Anastasia In the mountains on a chilly, dreary day.

The Morning After (Election Day)

Goodness gracious, I'm glad all that hostile, combative, intense polarizing is over. At least for today.

Now everybody, or a lot of people, want to make nice. Can we, at least, catch our breath.

For my part, holding onto an intention to reach the peak of that Mountain of Awe – and – getting it together on ground level have been far from simple tasks for me these past few months.

Oh, my! Oh, my!

The NYC mosque controversy and mid-term elections were enough to fog up my window on community development as well as my visionary proclivities. As captain of this ship of fools, if that’s what we be -- (I don’t think so, but sometimes I wondered in my moments of feeling at a loss for direction these past few months) -- -- yesterday’s election results, creepy as the whole pre-election ordeal was, gave us what we have needed out here to come up with a worthy plan for our next best efforts.

Elegant solutions won again where we are, at least, for one more round.

We’ve -- my first mate, Sue and I -- found the clearing through which to blaze our next peace action trail. I'd been hunting, but WE've got it now, I believe. Stay tuned in.

More to follow. I will keep you posted as developments unfold. From Anastasia
In the mountains ,as the days grow shorter and the temperature colder. Brrr.

Getting It Together On Ground Level

I was stuck, again. Momentarily at a standstill, an ordinary part of life’s perpetual cycling that does not feel particularly uplifting. And, certainly one that our quick speed, high tech world judges to be a negative. I could not get off the ground, a particularly frustrating state of affairs.

The situation was especially exasperating because it came about due to my aborting my most recent endeavor to, once again, climb the Mountain of Awe. A peak I have become accustomed to attaining in recent years -- with some effort. Since it was by choice that I return to ground level, you might have thought I was going to enjoy the return.

Not so. Not so!

I was intent on returning to ground level only long enough to retrieve my right arm, co-conspirator in building small “zones of peace, Sue deVeer who I have yet to formally introduce, a failing on my part I intend to soon remedy. Right away one can see the error in this kind of thinking.

While the purpose of the aborted climb, if you recall, had the seemingly, wholly altruistic purpose of my collaborating with Sue on behalf of New Horizons Small “Zones Of Peace” Project’s main mission: to build small “zones of peace” everywhere, I felt great loss. But loss of what? Was it simply a loss of control? Or was there more to it than that?

Nonetheless, thinking -- worse, even believing -- that one is in control of anything, even the certain outcome of one’s own decisions has almost always got to be suspect. Nonetheless, it seemed rather straightforward at the time. I was ostensibly searching for an answer to my quest of what I and “we” might contribute to reconciling the brouhaha of the so-called “NYC mosque” episode.

Given that Sue and I, originally, had come together to reconcile our local “Jewish/Muslim Controversy” of 2006 – with a significant modicum of success, I might add -- and, given Sue’s pledge (“Quaker Sue” in some of our circles) to help the American/Muslim community – and – my, now being an out-of –the-closet, returning to my tribe, Russian/Jewish, American/Jewess, it seemed reasonable in mid-August – and – our history together, albeit a relatively short one, that we could contribute something positive to this effort.

Perhaps, even offer our community peace-building model and its, now, customary experience of awe with accompanying elegant solutions, if we could be so blessed. Of course, my best-laid plans did not work. Most significantly, life-altering changes in Sue’s life were brewing (none of it bad, but irrelevant here), making it next to impossible for me to progress with her.

Yet, I – born and bred to make executive decisions, just could not find a way to proceed without her. What frustration!

Good news now!

As of yesterday, I and we are more or less back on track. More to come. Maybe, even later today. Stay posted for our new developments in building small “zones of peace” – and – how --

We believe you can join with us!