What If They Had A War And Nobody Showed Up?

...You may say I am a dreamer.

Peace, Love & Light
Kevin (Cloud)

Ancient Paths

I am looking to make my way to the Ancient Paths. The path of my Quaker ancestors' search for the inner light from God, the path of the Hippie quest for peace and love, the path of the Jesus Freaks yearning for a simple and authenticate faith.

Peace, Love & Light,

Kevin (Cloud)

Who Would Jesus Bomb?

Who would Jesus bomb?

Peace Literacy / Nonviolence Training

Paul Chappell, photo by Tom Cogill

Recently I participated in a Peace Literacy / Nonviolence Training held at a local Montessori School. The workshop was taught by Paul K. Chappell and since I am reading one of Paul’s books, The Art of Waging Peace, I was very excited to be able to attend.

Paul is a West Point graduate who served as a Captain in the U.S. Army and had been deployed in Iraq, now Paul works with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. You can learn more about Paul at his website www.peacefulrevolution.com.

In the workshop, Paul proposed that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, with food, water, and shelter being the most important of human needs, is actually up-side-down. Paul stated that humankind’s highest need is the need for purpose and meaning. His reasoning was that even with all physical needs met, without purpose and meaning humans lose hope and become violent towards themselves and others.

Paul also pointed out that understanding and respecting others, especially someone who is your opponent, is the basis of nonviolence. He explained that almost all human conflict is rooted in disrespect and that your best self-defense is to respect your opponent and seek common ground.

One of the handouts that we received was the “Joint (Gandhi-King) Principles of Nonviolence”, which is a synthesis of principals taught by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Joint (Gandhi-King) Principles of Nonviolence

Nonviolence means to honor the inherent worth of every human being. In Nonviolence we naturally seek to understand each other, build friendship and community.

Nonviolence means believing that our lives are linked together, that what we do impacts the lives of everyone we encounter. That we are responsible to and for one another. That we can trust one another and work toward the common good.

Nonviolence means dedicating ourselves to the fundamental rights of every human being (Justice, Equity, and Equality).

Nonviolence is courageously choosing to practice compassion with our adversaries. We oppose injustice, not people.

Nonviolence means recognizing love as the power of the human spirit to triumph over injustice, inequity, suffering; a true hero’s journey of personal-social change.

The eight hour workshop was very empowering and well worth the time. You can learn more about nonviolence training at http://peaceliteracy.org

Mosaic in the floor of the Montessori School

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” ~Jesus (Matthew 5:9)

Peace, Love & Light!

Kevin (Cloud)

Forty Years and All I Got Was This Piece of Paper!

I haven’t posted much over the past three years. I have been working on completing a long time goal that consumed all of my free time. It was one of those things that started out as a path to a career but after so many years it became a bucket-list item – I just “needed” to finish this!

Forty years ago I graduated from High School and began studying at the local community college. My major at that time was Social Science with the ultimate goal of graduating from seminary and entering the Ministry, well as they say “life happens”. Now after many stops and starts, three different colleges, and a few program changes, I am able to announce (and not without some level embarrassment due to the extended time that it took to complete it) I have finally earned my Associates Degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences with a concentration in Human Services. Did I mention that I had a G.P.A. of 3.59 and graduated with Honors?

I don’t have any plans right now to start working on my B.A. and my youthful goal of entering the Ministry has also morphed - mostly because my evolving views on traditional forms of Church prevent me from accepting a position as a paid minister, but that is another series blog posts that is found here Simple Church.

I want to thank my loving and supportive wife for putting up with me, especially during the past three years that I was working so diligently to complete my Degree, I love her so much!

My current goals involve attending to some long neglected home repairs, going on vacation with the family, and getting back to promoting the Hippie Christian Way.

Peace, Love and Light!

Kevin (Cloud)