Sometimes when you meet a seemingly ordinary person, you sense they have a story to tell. Masanobu Abe is that kind of person. He is quiet, but deep. A student, but not young. He studies massage at night and works in a massage clinic during the day. He is obviously a very busy, motivated man.

There are from three to five people who work in the same clinic. Most are young and are students. Some have already graduated. Masanobu stands out because he is a good ten years older than the others. Here in Japan it is very unusual for someone his age, 37, especially a man, to be starting a new field. Although it is changing a bit, usually people here are locked into a particular job track long before their late thirties.   Read more...

I went to our weekly meditation and contemplation session on Tuesday and this time there was a newcomer. He shared his lessons learned from several difficult years in which many diseases pestered him. He suffered from various serious infections, going practically blind and more. He believed firmly that behind all great, and so called random, challenges in life there is great meaning: they are there to force us into changing for the better or to parish. At a point in his life, when he felt broken and dependent on others in his blindness, he went inward. In his words he was forced to become humble, thankful for all that others give and all that existence brings. While waiting for others to do this or that for him he realized that things happen when they are supposed to happen. Nothing bad happened if he had to wait a little.

We are so accustomed to force our will onto everything and everybody: we can't even wait a little in peace and acceptance of the other. All we are busy with are our egoistic worries, our money, our image and other so called needs.   Read more...

For some reason, my old license plate from New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment which sits on my altar in front of my desk kept drawing my eye, so let me be the first to invite you (again) to scout Peace license plates, snap photos and send them to me at susan@susancorso.com. We’ve got some swell ones, and I’d really like to have one from every state in the U.S.

That said, what was drawing me was the translation of the Latin words on the license plate: peace goddess. On a whim, I turned to the fulsome Wikipedia and turned up seven such deities.   Read more...

Sri Lanka has been in a conflict for the last 26 years between the government and Liberation Tamil Tigers of Ealam (LTTE), a rebel group trying to carve out a section of Sri Lanka for them for self rule.   The government forces (mostly Sinhala) have destroyed the group and regained control of the area.  However, there has been collateral damage to many civilians in these areas and a cry from the Tamil Diaspora around the world.  This article calls for reconciliation between the two communities - Sinhala and Tamil. 

I am amazed at the mobilization of young people from the Tamil Diaspora around the world to protest against the Sri Lankan government’s purported human rights violations.   When often the younger generation of immigrants forgets the old country to a future in the new one, it is incredibly positive that the Diaspora feels so passionate about this difficult conflict on behalf of their community.   Maybe once the conflict is over, they will come back to Sri Lanka to rebuild the country together.   However, there is long way to go for reconciliation between the two communities as so much hatred has manifested, especially amongst the Diaspora overseas.   Read more...

This website made me grin for days.  They don’t want our money. They don’t want our email addresses. They just want our participation.

Consider these wonderful words from Good Will Treaty for World Peace founder Bryant McGill on their home page:   Read more...

I made a sign that hangs in my kitchen that says, "Don't forget your daily hugs." I didn't think I would forget to hug my husband, my kids, and my pets, but I was surprised to discover that sometimes I did forget to make sure everybody got enough hugs! I thought I would hang a sign up as an awareness practice. My kids will sometimes come up to me now and ask me if I need a hug, or ask for a hug for themselves. It is something that I treasure, and will forever.

It seems that most of our world is touch deprived. It is a well known fact that if babies aren't touched enough, they do not thrive. It is essential to humans to be touched. I wonder how many people go through a whole day without touching anyone. I feel sad about this. I think it is sad that so many people have become afraid to "get in someone's personal space". I am all for respecting boundaries, but I think we have gone overboard. In my opinion, it is a symptom of a culture that is also afraid to show emotions. By hugging someone, we might have to feel a feeling along with the hug. Some have been taught that this is a scary thing, and it is to be avoided.   Read more...

It happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to war, that Saddam Hussein carried out one of his most sinister experiments on the Kurdish population of Halabja. It was March 16, 1988, when the people of Halabja began their day to a barrage of bombs raining down from the sky — chemical cocktails engineered to inflict maximize damage on the civilian population. But the Butcher remained in Baghdad, safely six hours away.

In many ways Halabja Day is the day the Preemptive Love Coalition began. Born as an organization in 2008, our raison d'être began twenty years prior, the chemical capstone to the genocidal campaign against the Iraqi portion of the stateless, scattered Kurdish population.   Read more...

I sit here (in the lavatory of Racy) feebly typing two-fingered as always, attempting to write something poignant, relevant and encapsulating to describe the feelings of being less than 8 hours away from unlacing. Our week of lasts has come and gone. Our last full mileage tour day was yesterday. Our last school presentation seems a distant memory, though I realize it was only 2 days ago. Our last Ferry ride was yesterday, off the Sunshine Coast. We even ran faster, so as to catch the earlier Ferry into Horseshoe Bay and hopefully, catch the last period on the Canucks game. And, if open, say hello to our old friend Giovani at Pudgies Pizza here in the Bay and let him know we were back!

So here we were last night, coming off the biggest Ferry ride of our lives with our posse’ of patrol, Team Knuckleheads Rick and Andy, Amber and Rob, Steph and I (our numbed senses trying to take it all in).   Read more...

Sufism is an age-old lyrical path, which is now captivating the attention of ‘New Age Gurus’ and ‘Seekers’ alike. A Sufi is humanity’s most passionate poet and conveys the messages of love and peace through mystical lyrics, music and dance. One of the greatest Sufi poets, Rumi, said that music is the highest expression of love and dance the highest expression of music.   Read more...

I just discovered that the Japanese gave a Peace Bell to the United Nations in 1954! Did you know about it? I didn’t, but then I realized that if my mother were still alive, I probably would have. She was a tourist par excellence.

I’m planning to visit the United Nations on our mini-holiday to New York in May. Amazing, isn’t it, that I lived there for 17 years and never knew about the bell? I hope I’ll get to see it. Here’s a little background material.   Read more...

Several years ago when I first came to Japan, I took an Ikebana class from an older woman named Senoue Sensei. She had studied English in the school where I was working at the time, but had found verbs and grammar too tedious to learn. Needless to say, she soon quit.

However, she had a very keen interest in foreigners, so in order to be in touch with them, she started giving Ikebana lessons. “Flowers are universal. They speak to everyone the world over. So, my medium for international communication is through these magnificent creations of nature,” she said.   Read more...

That is the title and theme from these last couple of days along the Trans Canada West Coast edition of Canada’s linking highway. As we run (and may I say, a tad quicker than usual because of the winds of support at our backs), the ever-faithful “Knuckle Heads” steer cars clear of two runners intent on making their marathon.

Andy is now named “steady Eddy,” as his while-riding camera techniques are becoming the stuff of Hollywood legend, capturing shots of us along this famous Canadian Highway on the far west coast! Jeanette is our “holistic talker” with stories on herbs, different flower concoctions and the like. While Rick (now extended to Richard), is the thinker in the gang, figuring out the next bike move to keep the rear of the posse patrol clear of traffic.   Read more...

I was recently talking to a friend that had just returned from vacation. She told me how difficult it had been to really allow herself to just "be," to just relax. She felt pretty sure that she didn't know how to do this. She has been reading about present moment awareness and is learning different ways to try to do this, but when it came time to practice, it was difficult for her.

This got me thinking about how much we try to distract ourselves with activities and things to do so that we don't have to be with ourselves. We are so busy that we have to schedule time to just check in with ourselves to see what feels alive in us at that moment. This has been a chronic problem in our society for quite some time.   Read more...

Here’s quite a website for peaceworkers! The URL made me laugh out loud. International Peace and Conflict. Talk about a juxtaposition.

Yes, I suppose peacework is most often about conflict, but what I liked about this resource is its community. Here’s what they say about themselves.   Read more...

We almost jumped right out of Racy Verna when we saw BOTH our moms' faces in the crowd of welcomers at the Ferry dock, here in Victoria on Saturday! What a way to enter back onto home field, seeing a whole collection of our closest and most treasured family and friends.

It was a strange mix of emotions as we rode the final 20 minutes towards downtown Victoria. Crossing the border back to Canada represented so much and was rushing at us like memories from one’s youth, a collection of pictures running across our minds, remembering all we’d been through to reach this moment.

And then, like a shot from a cannon, we caught up to real time as we saw familiar faces in a familiar setting, all there to shower us with love and welcome us home!   Read more...