Namaste Beloveds,

Our month of Peace & Compassion in Co-Creating Heaven in 2011 has been challenging & full already! In our earthly heaven, there is often so much suffering in the middle of the Beauty & Love; meeting that suffering with compassion is one sure way to bring (inner) peace. The horrific tsunami in Japan has brought compassion to the global forefront. Our hearts quite naturally go out to all those affected and we also quite naturally feel the connection that we are ALL affected. For many this awareness is felt through fear whether reasonable or not ~ evidenced in iodine sales. I have heard of many experiencing personal tragedys & challenges including our own New Thought Families yogi, Keith Lickey suffering a brain aneurysm. We are all praying for him as is Silent Unity. Jeremiah got a first hand opportunity to practice compassion & peace after being bullied at school and he reacted so beautifully! Read all about it in our Mindful Matters Blog! Thank You God for all of it as creation & destruction are always at work & play in this mystery of life. And so it is with gratitude & caring, we continue our celebration here with joy filled multi-media messages & creative expressions ... read on for updates on all our offerings in support of you & yours living Love, compassion & peace. Thank you for sharing heart time with us; we are honored to share any part of your spiritual journey. We are so grateful for you!

Prayer Practice

For our prayer this month, we turn to the beautiful sentiments of peace & compassion from Mahatma Gandhi. Truly when we turn to see & honor another, we are blessed by compassion & peace.

Family Faith:
Sacred Space

Our home spiritual practice this month is compassion & peace. Each day at home, Jeremiah & I check in as part of our evening prayer about our compassion consciousness of the day. We share how we and/or others we witnessed either acted with compassion or a perceived lack of compassion. Our Blessings Board has a message from Fred Rogers that came into practice for us both when Jeremiah was wounded on the basketball court at school by an angry classmate. Read more about that in our Mindful Matters Blog! On the In Our Hands webpage, you can see our videos on our compassion practice & how we keep our home a peace zone. I think Jeremiah's video games are my biggest challenge in our home's peace zone ~ it's amazing how challenging it is to keep the screen time to 2 hours a day! Also on the In Our Hands webpage, is this month's Green Living segment of In Our Hands with us revisiting some of the ways we live green in contribution to our peaceful planet. Visit with us & tell us how you live!

In Our Hands Home Peace Zones!

Interfaith Inspirations
International Women's Day, 3/8 was celebrated world-wide with week long celebrations observed in some places. The Baha'i faith has a nineteen day fast 3/2-20. This month includes many Christian observances such as the beginning of Lent on March 9, Ash Wednesday & Shrove Tuesday the night before. In preparation for Easter, Lent is a time of reflection & a time of repent or "giving up" for many. Shrove Tuesday was the time when folks would clean out their stores of flour, sugar etc. (often eating pancakes) for the 40 days of Lent where such foods were forbidden. The now secular celebration of the Christian St. Patrick's Day is 3/17. March 20 is Spring Equionx with Pagan celebrations of Ostara for spring in the Northern Hemisphere & Mabon for autumn in the southern hemisphere. 3/20 is also Hola Mohalla: A Sikh day of mock battles & martial arts, Holi: Hindu spring festival dedicated to the god of pleasure ~people shower each other with colored water & smear red & green powder on each other & Purim: Jewish celebration of the deliverance in Persia from genocide observed with charity to the poor, as well as sharing food & merrymaking with friends.
We are in the 64 day interfaith celebration of  Season for Peace & NonViolence ~ hosted by AGNT which runs through this month ending 4/4.