Thimble 109 - In Heavenly Peace...

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Wishing Everyone Heavenly Peace

glitter-graphics.com
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Thimble 108 - for Adelaide

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Today is the day of Saint Adelaide.

Adelaide was born in Switzerland in 932. She was married at 15 to Lothair II, King of Italy. When her husband was killed by Berengar of Ivrea he tried to force her to marry his son. Adelaide refused and tried to flee, but ended up being captured, imprisoned and kept in solitary confinement for months.

According to legends Adelaide managed to escape and asked for help from Otto of Germany. He conquered Italy and married Adelaide. They were both crowned emperor and Empress together, which was unusual for the times. She died on 16 December 999.

Adelaide was passionately involved in promoting helping the poor and Peace during her life. She helped build churches and monasteries. She is the patron saint of abuse victims, exiles, prisoners, brides and widows. I think she'd like being here as a Peace Thimble. :-)
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Thimble 103 - Remember...

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Great God, who has told us
"Vengeance is mine,"
save us from ourselves,
save us from the vengeance in our hearts
and the acid in our souls.

Save us from our desire to hurt as we have been hurt,
to punish as we have been punished,
to terrorize as we have been terrorized.

Give us the strength it takes
to listen rather than to judge,
to trust rather than to fear,
to try again and again
to make peace even when peace eludes us.

We ask, O God, for the grace
to be our best selves.
We ask for the vision
to be builders of the human community
rather than its destroyers.
We ask for the humility as a people
to understand the fears and hopes of other peoples.

We ask for the love it takes
to bequeath to the children of the world to come
more than the failures of our own making.
We ask for the heart it takes
to care for all the peoples
of Afghanistan and Iraq, of Palestine and Israel
as well as for ourselves.

Give us the depth of soul, O God,
to constrain our might,
to resist the temptations of power
to refuse to attack the attackable,
to understand
that vengeance begets violence,
and to bring peace--not war--wherever we go.

For You, O God, have been merciful to us.
For You, O God, have been patient with us.
For You, O God, have been gracious to us.

And so may we be merciful
and patient
and gracious
and trusting
with these others whom you also love.

This we ask through Jesus,
the one without vengeance in his heart.

This we ask forever and ever.
Amen

Prayer for World Peace

sr. Joan Chittister - Benedictine Sisters of Erie
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Thimble 100 - Day of the Dead

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In Europe this is All Soul's Day and links back to equally ancient Pagan religions. In Celtic beliefs this time of the year was their New Year - a time where death and rebirth complete a full circle. In Mexico this is the Day of the Dead, when people go to cemeteries to be near their departed loved ones. The day is a blend of Christian and far more ancient Aztec beliefs in honouring your ancestors.

For today's Peace Thimble I'm remembering a very select group of Mexican war dead - those who have died, and continue to die, in the war against drug trafficking.

Poet and activist Javier Sicilia lost his son to the drug violence that has plagued Mexico. In June, he led a caravan 1,500 miles across Mexico, stopping in some of the most ravaged cities to hold rallies for the grief-stricken communities.

Read the full story, "Can a Grieving Poet's Movement for Peace Save Mexico?" by Melissa del Bosque at www.texasobserver.org.

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Thimble 99 - For the Little Angels

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Today is All Saint's Day - a day created by the Catholic church in which to remember all the early Christian martyrs. In Mexico it's also known as Día de los Inocentes ("Day of the Innocents") or Día de los Angelitos ("Day of the Little Angels"). Toys and gifts are left on the graves of dead children.

A good day to remember the little lost angels of war...





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Thimble 97 - Gaian Prayer

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Peace.
Peace She says to me.
Peace to your soul.
I am the beauty in the leaf.
I am the echo in a baby's laugh.
I am your Mother.
I am the joy in the heart that beats.
I am the free woman.
I am the one who breaks the shackles of oppression.
You are my hands and feet.

Gaian Prayer - Jason Clark

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Thimble 93 - Be a Light

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Today is the Hindu festival of Diwali. It actually extends over several days, each with it's own stories significance and celebrations.

Regardless of the mythological explanation one prefers, what the festival of lights really stands for today is a reaffirmation of hope, a renewed commitment to friendship and goodwill, and a religiously sanctioned celebration of the simple - and some not so simple - joys of life.

Times of India editorial

Diwali day is a time to wish everyone Peace and Prosperity for the new year. A time to celebrate the victory of Good over Evil and Light over Darkness...

'Fill the Heart with the oil of Love.
Place in it the wick of single-pointed mind.
Light it with the Knowledge of Truth
and remove the darkness of Ignorance around you.
Just as one lamp can light many lamps;
let each youth kindle this Light in many hearts.'

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Thimble 87 - Bahai Universal Peace

"If this warfare and strife be for the sake of religion, it is evident that it violates the spirit and basis of all religion. All the divine Manifestations have proclaimed the oneness of God and the unity of mankind. They have taught that men should love and mutually help each other in order that they might progress.

Now if this conception of religion be true, its essential principle is the oneness of humanity. The fundamental truth of the Manifestations is peace. This underlies all religion, all justice. The divine purpose is that men should live in unity, concord and agreement and should love one another.

Consider the virtues of the human world and realize that the oneness of humanity is the primary foundation of them all. Read the Gospel and the other Holy Books. You will find their fundamentals are one and the same. Therefore, unity is the essential truth of religion and, when so understood, embraces all the virtues of the human world."

'Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace

the Baha'i "Star of Nine Religions"

The Baha'i movement has no initiation rites, no liturgy, no priesthood and no sacraments.

Baha'i doctrines are radically egalitarian, teaching the complete equality of men and women and the unity of all humanity. They consider themselves to be working towards a world government where extremes of poverty and wealth, along with all forms of persecution, will be eliminated.

from here

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Thimble 81 - An Unlikely Angel

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An incredible story about an ordinary-extraordinary woman..

Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska)

15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008
Nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize

The wings of angels
are often found on the backs of the least likely people.

Eric Honeycutt
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Thimble 80 - 1,000 Paper Cranes

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In Japan the Crane has always been a symbol of good luck, but one little girl changed it into a symbol of Peace for Japan.

This is her story...

Sadako and the Peace Crane

quoted from bbb.co.uk

'... on the 6 August, 1945, at 8.15am, Japanese Standard Time. An atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. The atomic bomb exploded 564 metres (1,850 feet) above the ground. Nearly all the buildings within 2.4 km (1.5 miles) were flattened. About 80,000 people died instantly from the blast. Another 70,000 died within a year, from injuries and from the fallout of nuclear radiation in the area surrounding the bomb's detonation.

The deaths did not stop there. Around 200,000 people have died because of this bomb alone. Many died because of illnesses brought about from the high levels of nuclear radiation to which they were exposed from living in and around Hiroshima.

One young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki was born in 1943. She was only two years old when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Although she was too young to remember the war, every year she took part in the Peace Celebrations in Hiroshima because her grandmother died during the war. As Sadako grew up, she was strong, courageous and athletic. In 1955, she was preparing for a big race when she became dizzy and fell down. She was diagnosed with leukaemia, a cancer caused by radiation fallout, the 'atom bomb disease'. She was only 11 years old.

The illness changed Sadako's life. She was unhappy because she could not go to school, go out running or do the activities she had so enjoyed. However, she knew that some people recover from leukaemia so she never gave up hope.

One day her best friend Chizuko came to visit her and she told Sadako a story to cheer her up. The story was about a bird, a crane which was supposed to live for 1,000 years.

In Japan the crane is known as 'the bird of happiness' and is often referred to as 'Honourable Lord Crane'.

...the crane's reputation for long life and prosperity became a symbol of good health, and origami cranes became a popular gift for those who were ill. The story said that anyone who was ill should make 1,000 paper cranes and the gods would grant them a wish.

Sadako hoped that the gods would grant her wish to get well so that she could run again. Her friend, Chizuko showed her how to make a crane using origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, and Sadako set to work.

All her visitors brought brightly coloured pieces of paper for her to make the cranes and Sadako's brother hung the finished ones from the ceiling of her room in the hospital.

Sadly, Sadako only managed to complete 644 paper cranes before dying on the 25 October, 1955, at the age of 12. The remaining 356 cranes were folded by her school friends so that she could be buried with 1,000 paper cranes.

Sadako had not given up, she continued to make paper cranes until she died. Sadako's friends were inspired by her courage and determination. They collected the letters that she had written and published them in a book called Kokeshi. Young people all over Japan were touched by her story and raised money to build a monument to her and all of the children killed by the atom bomb.

In 1958 the memorial was unveiled. It is a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane and is in the Hiroshima Peace Park, in Hiroshima, Japan.

Robert Atendido, took this picture in April of 2003.
It shows the structures that were built to protect the paper cranes from the elements.

The statue is engraved at the bottom with the wish the children made:

This is our cry, This is our prayer, Peace in the world.

Every year on Peace Day people from all over the world fold paper cranes and send them to Sadako's statue in Hiroshima.'

You can find more survivors' stories, and tapes, here at testimony_of_hibakusha.

"I will write 'peace' on your wings and you will fly all over the world"

Sadako Sasaki...

Thimble 76 - Tuncas'ila

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Tuncas'ila, I ask you
to hear my voice,
my prayers are always
for the future inheritors,
as we struggle to maintain
peace and healing upon our
sacred Grandmother Earth
on their behalf.

Arvol Looking Horse
keeper of the white buffalo calf pipe
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Thimble 75 - Prayer for Yom Kippur

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"During the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur everyone gets a chance to put things right with other people before asking God's forgiveness. This period is called The Days of Repentence or Days of Awe.

It's a time when Jews can make up for the wrongs of the past year and make a firm commitment to not do the same bad thing or things again."

Prayer for the World

Let the rain come and wash away
the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds
held and nurtured over generations.
Let the rain wash away the memory
of the hurt, the neglect.
Then let the sun come out and
fill the sky with rainbows.
Let the warmth of the sun heal us
wherever we are broken.
Let it burn away the fog so that
we can see each other clearly.
So that we can see beyond labels,
beyond accents, gender or skin color.

Let the warmth and brightness
of the sun melt our selfishness.
So that we can share the joys and
feel the sorrows of our neighbors.
And let the light of the sun
be so strong that we will see all
people as our neighbors.
Let the earth, nourished by rain,
bring forth flowers
to surround us with beauty.
And let the mountains teach our hearts
to reach upward to heaven.

Amen.

Rabbi Harold Kushner
2003
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Thimble 66 - Dove of Peace

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The Dove of Peace is a Christian symbol, but the olive branch it carries belongs to the Greek /Roman goddess of Peace - Eirene. In earliest Christian art the dove was used to symbolise spiritual peace. It was only later, when the dove was depicted carrying an olive branch, that it became a symbol for Peace in a more literal sense of non-violence. as a symbol for a more literal kind of Peace.

glitter-graphics.com

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Thimble 65 - for Rosh Hashanah

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Today is the Jewish New Year - Rosh Hashanah. It is as much a time to reflect as to celebrate. A personal time to look at your own Spiritual journey - where you have been and where you want to go in the New Year.

A tradition I really like the idea of is "Tashlich".

'On Rosh Hashanah, many Jews may follow a custom called tashlich ("casting off") in which they walk to a naturally flowing body of water such as a river or stream, recite several prayers, reflect upon their sins over the past year and symbolically cast them off by throwing their sins into the water (usually by throwing pieces of bread into the stream).'

Wouldn't it be nice to wash away all the world's anger and hate and start each new year completely fresh and clean?

glitter-graphics.com

Shalom! Peace!
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Thimble 63 - Peace and War

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There is one Peace Symbol that has, most tragically, taken on a symbolism of an entirely different kind. In fact, it has even been banned in several countries around the world.

Originally it was a symbol for harmony, Peace and good luck. In China it was sometimes used as a symbol for the sun. The ancient Greeks used it to decorate their pottery and the Hindus linked it, in various forms, to their gods. It has been used in funeral rites as a blessing and as a good luck symbol all across Asia. This bottom photo shows it used on a Temple in South Korea.

The ancient Sansksrit name for this symbol, translating as "all is well" is... svastika.

all is well

How terribly tragic that such a beautiful blessing, worked into a pleasing geometric symbol, could now be something we draw back from in disgust when we see it in connection with Hitler and the Nazis. For millenia it wished us all well until one century of war and violence changed all that.

Maybe one day, when all is well, we'll set it free to be the simple symbol of Peace it was first created to be.

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Thimble 61 - Let me sow Love

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Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

st. Francis of Assisi, 13th century...

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Thimble 60 - for Mabon

.Mabon is the Wiccan festival of the Autumn equinox. I'm putting the Wiccan "Law of Three" for this Peace thimble.

glitter-graphics.com

Whatever you send out, in thought or deed,
comes back to you three times stronger...

So...

send out Peace!


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Thimble 55 - Peace in the Valley

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A beautiful Peace Song by Elvis Presley

Well the bear will be gentle
And the wolves will be tame
And the lion shall lay down by the lamb, oh yes
And the beasts from the wild
Shall be lit by a child
And I'll be changed, changed from this creature that I am, oh yes

There will be peace in the valley for me, some day
There will be peace in the valley for me, oh Lord I pray
There'll be no sadness, no sorrow
No trouble, trouble I see
There will be peace in the valley for me, for me
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Thimble 52 - Blessed

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Blessed are the peacemakers:
for they shall be called the children of God.

Jesus
Matthew 5:3-10
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Thimble 51 - Eirene and the Olive Branch

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The olive branch as a peace symbol dates back to ancient Rome and Greece. The Olive tree was the favourite of Eirene (Irene) - the Greek goddess of Peace. She was depicted holding an olive branch.

glitter-graphics.com

"How far peace outweighs war in benefits to man;
Eirene , the chief friend and cherisher of the Mousai (Muses);
Eirene, the enemy of revenge, lover of families and children, patroness of wealth.
Yet these blessings we viciously neglect, embrace wars;
man with man, city with city fights, the strong enslaves the weak."

Euripides
5th BC
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