A chain of consciousness
09/30/2009

I belong to a virtual community in the Methow Valley--the members of a progressive list serve called Yipdoggies.  Yesterday a woman named Karen Shaffer posted the following response to a thread on the evolution of consciousness--a conversation wondering what it will take to get humanity off of war.  Her post was so eloquent and moving I asked her permission to post it.

It is just good to know that there are people who are working for peace and will not give up.  It helps me a lot to know I am not alone.

The only way I think we can change our ways is to touch each other--traveling to countries that are supposed to be our enemies like Dana did when he went to Iraq.  His trip introduced me to real people whom I think about and pray for everyday.  We actually saw the bleakness we have imposed on people as a nation, who were just sitting on the ground in refugee camps, beautiful wide-eyed children, who no longer had parents because we had killed them.

I have this picture in my head that every time we touch with love and compassion a person we called our enemy a circle is formed. Remember the chains we used to make as a child, linking one strip of paper through the next, making linked circles?  If you put the name of each person you touch who is supposed to be an enemy or is someone you struggle with in your everyday life on a strip and link the strips you will soon have a chain all around every room in your home.  When you meditate or pray you can walk around and name each one and ask for peace in each one's life.

For example, there are two Iraqis on my chain and there are people from Pakistan I met through my son’s attempts to provide housing, and Africans from the Congo that Linda Mendro met who are building an orphanage for children who lost their parents to AIDS.  A baby was born in the village where Linda was and the people named the baby Linda.  When I was in India, the orphanage where I worked named a baby girl with my name.  This child is now grown and I also care about her whole family. They are all still in Calcutta.

There are people from Cuba Tom Sullivan met while riding around the country on his bike.  He came back with pictures and told stories of one couple, in particular, who had nothing, no furniture, very little food.  They had one cracked and broken plastic chair and they wanted him to sit in it.  They gave him their one egg and they all ate rice and beans.  Tom gave this man new tires for his bike when he left and that man cried.  

Something else I noticed is if you take your chain and turn it sideways and smash it flat it looks like a DNA helix . We are all a part of each other, and the flat chain makes it apparent for me. How can we justify any violence that would hurt someone that is part of each of us?  We do not kill our children on purpose, or our brothers or sister, or grandparents, husband or wife.

If you told me the stories of your chain, or showed me pictures, your chain could attach to my chain. Soon that chain would go around the world touching every country.  If we are all praying and meditating everyday for the lives in our chain we have released incredible  metaphysical power into the world.  If we believe together, we can move mountains.  What we think and pray generates energy that can bring the peace we crave.   

Our brains can heal us or make us sick.  As a nurse I have seen it so many times.  That power is so much stronger when we connect to like-minded people and agree together that love is the answer and there is no room for hate in any of our lives.  Be sure and put your family in the chain and the people at work who drive you crazy.  I have some people who are neocon crazy right-wing guys who really do think they are doing the work of God.  Knowing that I am praying for these people helps me be able to talk to them about what I really think and not get mad.

My dream of world peace is tangible when I look at my chain.  It helps me believe that one day we will all stand up and say no to war.
                                                         -- Karen Shaffer