Dona Nobis Pacem -- 9 -- Blog4Peace

Today is a very special day on so many levels.

If you're Canadian, you already know why the bells have rung with joy throughout the land.

If you've come to A Piece of My Mind from Blog4Peace, there's a reason that Canadians are celebrating with tears of relief and wide-beaming smiles of hope.

Today we witnessed the swearing-in of Canada's newest prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

It's impossible to go into details about this without turning an apolitical peace movement into something its founder, Mimi Lenox, would prefer to keep aside for this special day.

So far I've typed several things that I've quickly erased, because I deeply respect Mimi's reason for keeping things non-partisan.

I will simply say that for a country made up of two genders and of people descended from many ethnic groups, as well as sending representatives from six distinct regions, the cabinet ministers sworn in alongside Trudeau today at last reflects Canada's citizens in a way that's never happened before.

As well, Canadians were invited to witness the swearing-in ceremony in a spirit of openness that has been completely absent in Ottawa for the past nine years. In fact, this ceremony has never before been witnessed by the public. There was limited space inside Rideau Hall for the event, so large-screen tvs were set up outside to broadcast the speaking of the oaths, to cheers of delight that filtered inside at several key moments.

For this year's Blog4Peace, I'm posting a song that captures the spirit of today's swearing-in of a new government in my nation's capitol, a spirit that so many of my fellow Canadians share with me.

Many changes in government begin with promises and end in cynicism. My husband and my mom watched the ceremonies with me, and it really touched me that my mom became more and more excited as each new cabinet member came forward to swear the oath. She has seen more parliaments than me, and she said today that she's never seen a group of people that exuded such a sense of dynamic change. The simple yet profound difference of having an equal number of male and female cabinet ministers was something I don't think my mom had ever thought she'd witness.

The reason I've wrapped this year's post around a political celebration has its roots in the mean-spirited tone of the campaign run by the outgoing government, in contrast to the optimistic tone of the incoming government. There's a relieved sense in Canada that we've somehow managed to pull off a revolution without having to fire a shot.

My deep and grateful thanks go out to my fellow Canadians for showing up in record numbers on voting day. With Remembrance Day / Veteran's Day coming up, Canadians have shown that standing up for your country doesn't only mean serving in the armed forces. Peacefully showing up to vote can mean all the difference. 

Dona Nobis Pacem -- 8 -- Blog 4 Peace

Once again it is my great joy to take part in Blog 4 Peace, started by Mimi Lenox over at her blog in 2006.

I missed the very beginning of her challenge, but it didn't take me long to discover her peace movement rippling out over the blogosphere. 2008 was my first Blog Blast for Peace.

Today Blog 4 Peace takes place across all forms of social media. On Facebook, on Twitter, on Pinterest, probably on Tumblr and Instagram and more than likely on other platforms I haven't yet heard about.

The challenge that goes out to all of us each year is to bring the ideal of peace to the forefront of our collective consciousness by flooding the internet with messages of peace. Mimi's event has grown over the years to include participants from countries all across the globe.

Today, from my eastern Canadian part of the world, I'd like to share a piece of ballet with you that deals with forgiveness.

Many people who are drawn to Blog 4 Peace find themselves disheartened by the state of the world, currently fighting its share of battles politically, socially and in its most primal form -- environmentally.

When faced with such Big Picture issues, we're often advised to look within ourselves as the starting point for change.

One of the most difficult feats to achieve for any person is to experience forgiveness.

As hard as it is, it's still more common to forgive someone who has wronged us than to forgive ourselves.

In this ballet -- Giselle -- a nobleman betrays the peasant girl he loves by forsaking her in favor of his arranged marriage to a woman from the aristocracy. When Giselle dies of a broken heart, the nobleman Albrecht visits her grave in the forest where he is in danger from the Wilis, the vengeful spirits of wronged women.

Giselle, who has joined the ranks of the Wilis, reunites with Albrecht and they dance a pas de deux (or duet) of forgiveness.

The dance language in this piece between Giselle and Albrecht uses trust movements, support movements, risk movements, balance movements (as she makes the decision to forgive) and symmetrical mirror movements (to show how this couple has achieved a deeper connection following her death, now that her spirit understands his true remorse and as he acknowledges his wrongdoing.) 

Because forgiveness is a means of letting go, of refusing to let negativity entrap our futures, on this Blog 4 Peace Day I offer forgiveness as something we can do within ourselves to effect change.

The piece I'm sharing with you today begins at the 4:45 mark, and ends at the 10:11 mark.

Giselle is performed by Natalia Osipova, and Albrecht is performed by Vladimir Shklyarov.

  

Blog 4 Peace -- 7 -- Dona Nobis Pacem -- Grant Us Peace

Today I'm joining with Mimi Lenox and a world of Peace Bloggers as we put our thirst for Peace into the Universe.

This piece is from Vivaldi's Gloria, which my choir is singing at the end of the month. Vivaldi's Gloria is one of my favorite works, and as an alto I love this piece in particular.

On Dona Nobis Pacem day, Vivaldi's work sends out this wish:

"Lamb of God

You who take away the sins of the world

Grant us peace"

I'd like to take a moment to address this wish, sent out into the Universe.

Wishes are a good starting point. You can't get anywhere without wishing for something. Whether you wish you could write a book, or visit a place you've always longed to see, if you don't start by hoping for it, where will you be?

You'll be in the same place you're in now.

The Blog 4 Peace movement asks us to take our wishes a little further than that. On Blog 4 Peace Day, we're asked to fill social media with our hopes for peace, in order to further the worldwide conversation towards peace.

What will that do? you may ask. Just a bunch of bloggers and Facebookers, Twitter users and Pinterest pinners posting about peace.

Well, if you think about Amazon and its algorithms, when a book goes on sale and a good number of people all purchase it on the same day, that activity drives the book higher onto Top 100 or even Top 10 lists. Amazon then starts promoting the book to readers who have bought similar books. Success builds on success.

If we all continue to blog for peace every year on Nov. 4th, if we send out Facebook posts, tweet about peace and pin peace to our Pinterest boards, we will collectively push our wishes and hopes for peace into the Universe's Top 10 algorithm.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.  

Thanks to the National Chamber Choir of Armenia for such a rich interpretation.

Dona Nobis Pacem

Grant us peace.

Hundreds of bloggers are talking about peace today. Hundreds more are placing their wishes for peace as their status on Facebook. And even more people are tweeting peace on Twitter.

When a unified prayer like this reaches out into the Universe, it's a powerful force for change. I want to thank all of you who are reading this, posting about it and tweeting peace for reaching out to one another today.

For my Blog Blast post this year, I'm turning to my great passion - dance.

In the clip below, Louise Lecavalier performs a section of a larger dance piece for La La La Human Steps, a contemporary dance company from Quebec, here in Canada.

I had the incredible pleasure of seeing this company perform live while I worked at the performing arts theatre in Toronto in the 90's. And as I set my mind working on what to post for Blog Blast this year, I found myself gravitating toward Louise Lecavalier's signature struggling movements.

I thought about our tendency to fight things.

Not just one another in war's great theatre. Not just parental figures, romantic partners or career rivals. We fight all of these and we fight ourselves. It's the essential ingredient that makes up conflict, and where would we writers be without it to construct our heart-stopping stories?

The thing that I love about this dance piece is what happens when Louise decides to stop fighting. When she surrenders to her partner, or, on a deeper level, to the inevitable.

What would happen if we all decided to stop fighting for a moment? If we all stood still, stopped flailing, stopped using our energy to avoid, to evade and push away?

What would happen if we stopped thinking of surrender as a form of loss? Perhaps surrender is a form of courage. Peace cannot enter if we're in perpetual motion.

On this day of wishes for peace, I wish all of you that sweet moment of surrender, when we catch our breath and feel how wonderful it is to simply BE.



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If you'd like to take this Peace Globe and fly it, please do!

Thank you to Mimi Lenox for launching this incredible event four years ago. It just grows and grows and grows.