New Year's Thoughts

With the New Year fast approaching, I add my voice to those who are calling for a rush to Peace.

I really don’t want to bring you down while you are preparing for your celebrations around the world. But, if you are alive and able to read this message, GIVE THANKS. Allow yourself to see and feel the good fortune you are experiencing at this moment. Send the very most love that you can conjure within yourself to all who are in pain and suffering anywhere in the world right now. Surround with love those millions of babies who have no parents as they have been taken due to some thought of man or hand of nature.

I remind you of some of the events of 2006 that took friends, neighbors, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, children, mothers, dads, saints and sinners alike:

2006 Southern Leyte mudslide, Philippines, (17 February 2006) c. 950 killed.
May 2006 Java earthquake, Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia (May 27, 2006), c. 6,200 killed
July 2006 Java earthquake, Java, Indonesia (July 17, 2006), c. 550 killed
Typhoon Saomai (2006), Zhejiang, China, (August, 2006), c. 450 killed
2006 Typhoon Durian - killed at least 720 people in the Philippines
Russia Armavia Airbus A.320 air disaster (May 3, 2006) 113 killed
Russia S7 Airlines Airbus A310 air disaster (July 9, 2006) 124 killed
Ukraine Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Tupolev 154 air disaster (August 22, 2006) 170 killed
Brazil's Gol Airlines Boeing 737 air disaster (September 29, 2006) 154 killed
Nigeria's ADC Airlines Boeing 737 air disaster (October 29, 2006) 97 killed
Al Salam Boccaccio 98 (February 2, 2006) — 1,018 deaths
Djibouti ferry accident (April 6, 2006) — 113 death
Ilado pipeline explosion near Lagos, Nigeria (May 12, 2006), 150 killed

Against my backdrop of pink diamonds, I would like to remind you of the people that are dying as I send this message to you and therefore increasing the figures that are listed below. The statistics were garnered from www.antiwar.com/casualties:

American Death Total in Iraq since the war began March 19, 2003 is 2,998
Number of Deaths of other Coalition Troops is 239
US Military Deaths in Afghanistan is 356
The Iraqi Civilian Body Count since war began on March 19, 2003 is a minimum of
52,139 and a maximum of 57,707

And we easily forget some wars that are still going on and if not still ongoing they are under an unsteady peace. Here is a list of some of them and the total body counts associated with them. These figures were garnered from Wikipedia at (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disasters):

120,000 - Algerian Civil War (1991 - )
69,000 - Peru/Shining Path conflict (1980 - )
60,000 - Sri Lanka/Tamil conflict (1983-)
31,000–100,000 - Second Chechen War (1999 - )
30,000 - Turkey/PKK conflict (1984 -)
3,000 - Civil war in Côte d'Ivoire (2002 - )
between 1,975 and 4,500+ killed - violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (2000 -)
between 1,547 and 2,173+ killed - 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
209 killed - 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings, (Mumbai, India, 2006)
139 killed - Cartoon Riots(2006)

When will we determine that death is no longer a welcome guest among us? When will we stop the needless killing saying to ourselves instead, “Some visits of death we cannot avoid, but there will be none to which we have issued an invitation.” When will we see, in life, a sacredness that cannot be replaced? Maybe if we give up on the ideas of anger, lust, and greed being useful tools in acquiring any permanent satisfaction…we will then think of this life as sacred not thinking that we have another coming in which we can make up for the mistakes and errors of today. Maybe if we see how profane it is when we use the same mind to think that somehow we are different because of a shade of skin of which the composition is the same for us all. Maybe if we finally realize that the 510,065,600 km of surface on earth which we all share does not physically belong to any of us as we were not born out of it but on it through a woman we will treasure the land for what it is – a nurturing and sharing and ever gracious host.

Recognize some other visits by death of which below are only two listed:

Ship disasters: 1,018 dead - Al-Salam Boccaccio 98 (Red Sea, 2006)
Stampedes: 362 dead - stampede at the stoning of the devil ritual (Mecca, 2006)

What is loose that will permit us to purchase garments for our girl children to wear that reveal their bodies and make them prey to men with no honor? What is loose among us that will create software that trains children to kill with pinpoint accuracy and displays the affects of the kill in living color? There is something loose among us that have robbed us of our humanity in that we can watch someone stand before another look the other in the eyes and chop his/her head off in front of the children. There is evidence of that something loose again when we allow countries and armies to rob our children of their innocence by putting guns and knives in their hands and sending them off to war.

I am nearly afraid to use the phrase God-Consciousness for fear that there are those who already feel far more powerful as they have given up on God showing any signs of finding them guilty of crimes against creation or creator.

In the name of Love and as Lover, I recommend to you a way out. Simply give up. That is the way out. Only Love is the answer and Peace is the Way. Everyone who feels that they have been deprived, denied, abused, misused, forgotten, forsaken, cheated, robbed – give up. Yes, give up the will to get even, to get back. GIVE UP. ABANDON SHIP. LEAVE THE FIELD OF WAR. THERE IS NO HONOR IN DEATH. If there is a mother who wishes her child to die, she is not the one who gave birth. The only honor in death is for the living.

Who have I offended? I know there must be someone out there whom I have offended. It is not my intention. But, I am not answerable to you. I answer to Life and to Love that can only occupy a living thing.

To Love I answer and to Love I owe allegiance. I vow to honor life and protect the children. These words have energy of their own. What energy are you sending out into the universe? What do you want to see come back to you that will allow you to have a taste of Peace?