Hi,
It is Thursday, January 17, and tomorrow morning I will join Karen
Davis and Harrison in the Practice of Peace workshop in New York City
that Karen has been organizing every year for quite some time now. I
am writing this for myself as a meditation on this upcoming, four-day
moment that winds up lasting all year and, so far, a lifetime.
It always comes along in January, and the weather is always sharp and
cold along the riverside park by the Hudson. The room is always
drafty and we'll need to learn again the minor art of balancing the
heating with when to slightly open windows to cool ourselves a touch.
I always think this is yet another metaphor for the practice of
peace. It is the business of listening. I remind myself now that
often in an opened space, such as we do, usually there is someone
talking, but that most folks spend the great majority of their time
listening. This is one of my favorites thoughts of open space.
In America this will be the weekend of the Martin Luther King, Jr.
birthday holiday. He's the man who listened to Black people and heard
the dream of this heart-stirring, puzzling, unfolding experiment that
is America. (We'll also have opportunities to hear other voices,
too.) We will listen for Martin's peace-loving spirit. For me, it's
in the quiet, somehow. The peace and the quiet. A matched pair,
perhaps.
I might render it a trio in my mind, because I also love the peace
that is a bold traveler through all lands and every heart, the mystery
in big shoes that sows opportunities, creates possibility, and sings
always songs of hope. Her hearty laughter is as much appreciation as
amusement. It is a generous gift.
My meditations are not like essays. They do not have a beginning, a
middle, and an end. I just re-enter or re-emerge gradually. And I
trust a part of me stays.
Ralph Copleman
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