Monday 17 November 2014

The Book Promo Video is up!

Almost a year after publication, I finally got the promo video for "Wisdoms of the Light" up on Youtube today. I'm putting it up here on my blog, with some of the artwork slides I made.

Hope you enjoy watching it.

Just in time for Christmas? ;-)

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Tuesday 4 November 2014

Dona Nobis Pacem 2014 ~ Sowing the Seeds



  We're sowing the seeds of love


Did you know that the seeds of the gigantic redwood trees are tiny? Each seed is barely bigger than a match head. You could fit a potential forest into a tablespoon.

 

There's something miraculous about that fact; that something so minuscule has the potential to grow into one of the world's tallest trees. A good reminder to never underestimate the small or seemingly fragile.

Sometimes words can feel as small and insignificant as tiny seeds.

That is especially true this Blogblast for Peace, as we come to the final months of a year littered with humanity's failings; tragedies, disclosures, scandals and lies.

 Without love and a promised land
We're fools to the rules of a government plan

I've seen, or been sent, global examples of TV media blackouts on vital issues. Things such as major protests and marches; from Ireland's tens of thousands against water charges and New York's 400,000 marching for global warming to the most recent appalling treatment of peaceful protesters at London's Occupy Democracy. 
 
 As the headline says you're free to choose
One of these days they're gonna call in the ruse
 
There's been disclosures of voting and election fraud in several countries.

Could you be, could you be squeaky clean
And smash any hope of democracy?
 
Pushed through laws and budget cuts that target the most defenceless: the disabled, elderly and poor...  
 Now what does that remind me of?
 

Feel the pain, talk about it,  
 If you're a worried man then shout about it  
 
 Pollution, big business greed and deception, political avarice and the constant push for wars.

 Open hearts, feel about it, 
Open minds, think about it  
 

Everyone read about it, 
 Everyone scream about it

It has been an exceptionally depressing year. One that has left many feeling bitter, despairing or angry as hopes for a better future vanished.

I spy tears in their eyes
They look to the skies 
for some kind of divine intervention

How does hope rise above all that despair? How does peace stand firm when filled with bitterness or anger? The only way is through love, because love has no time to bother with being disappointed, hurt or angry.


When you're sowing the seeds of love
anything is possible  
 
Just like a giant redwood tree, love soars above such trivialities. 

Love understands that we all fall short along the way. None of us is perfect. Love remembers this and is willing to hold out a hand of comfort and sympathy. Love isn't a fool, but it understands the need for reconciliation, determination and persistence.

Love offers seemingly small gifts: patience, protection, empathy, fairplay; little words of encouragement and understanding. Such things may seem pointless and small, but small words in the hands of love are very powerful seeds.


Everyone read about it, read about it
We're sowing the seeds of love. 


We are facing hard times on this planet. There's no use sugar-coating the facts. Things are bad. And tough times need tough love; real Love.

 And I believe in love power 
(open your eyes)
 
 The kind of Love that stands with dignity and calm in the storms, like a redwood tree.

We're sowing the seeds of love
 

Love offers protection to the helpless, compassion to the weak and a voice to those who cannot speak for themselves. Love persists and quietly insists on being taken seriously. Love keeps standing up, taking part and speaking out.

Sowing the seeds... 

So we hold onto love and we keep talking about peace...

of love power

We keep writing about peace...
We're sowing the seeds of love
 
And most important of all, regardless of religion, nationality or political affiliation... we hold onto that tough love and we rise above the masses like a forest of redwood trees.


High time we made a stand
And shook up the views of the common man



 We have to be leaders rather than followers. Way showers. Light keepers in the dark. 


As Gandhi put it: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." 

Well...   I've been through the ignored and laughed at. That means I've only got one more stage to get through. I think I can manage that. ;-)



And I believe in love power  (open your eyes)
We're sowing the seeds of love

 

 
 
 Sowing the seeds,
An end to need, 
And the politics of greed 
with Love

Saturday 1 November 2014

3 ~ Harvest Love

3 of the 60 ways of Peace challenge - Harvest Love

It's all about planting the right seeds...

Harvest ~ Andreas Vollenweider
looking up through the clouds of my imagination
these doctrines of delusion don’t deliver
the children bear the traces of a thousand years of fear
even true love – true love, breathes fire onto mirrors
find me at the gates of wisdom, questions falling, falling on deaf ears
so I set my ship out on the waters, trying to reach faith’s holy mount
but the dove I send ahead returns with just a hungry seed of doubt
this is the harvest of the world
this is the garden of our works
winding through the alleyways in the hour of the wolf
turn me out on the edge of town in a field of solid earth
I can’t resist the impulse to sow some wild kind of seed
and reap the ripened fruit of all I've grown upon the vines of every deed
this is the harvest of the world
this is the garden of our works

seeds of doubt grow vines of judgement
vines of judgement - thorns of blame
seeds of beauty - fields of wonder
seeds of anger - blades of shame
seeds of knowledge - trees of wisdom
trees of wisdom - fruits of grace
seeds of tears -  vines of forgiveness
seeds of sorrow bring the wild flowers of faith
seeds of truthfulness grow the tangled roots of feeling
seeds of joy - the vines of laughter
fruits of laughter finally bring the wine of healing