13 July 2006
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4968.shtml
If you are not rain, my love
Be tree
Sated with fertility, be tree
If you are not tree, my love
Be stone
Saturated with humidity, be stone
If you are not stone, my love
Be moon
In the dream of the beloved woman, be moon
(So spoke a woman to her son at his funeral)
From the poem, "Under Siege," by Mahmoud Darwish
***
From: Isa-Kae Meksin
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 2:48 PM
Subject: [EchoElysianNCForum] Fwd: A Cracked Pot
Deet Lewis is a comtemporary of mine, a friend who lives in Antigua,
Guatemala.
In view of some of the emails on this Forum, I thought it fitting to send it
on... Isa
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 11:21:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: Deet Lewis <deetlew60@yahoo.com>
Subject: A Cracked Pot
a lovely folk tale with a moral.
The Cracked Pot -
An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a
pole which she carried across her neck.
One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and
always delivered a full portion of water.
At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot
arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home
only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of
its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own
imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been
made to do.
After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the
woman one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in
my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."
The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on
your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?" "That's because I
have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your
side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them."
"For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers
to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there
would not be this beauty to grace the house."
Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws
we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and
rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look
for the good in them.
So, to all of my crack pot friends, have a great day and remember to smell
the flowers on your side of the path!
God Bless You All
***
Julia Ward Howe, author of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, began Mother's
Day for Peace as part of her work on behalf of peace and social justice. She
wrote the original Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870 as a way to protest the
carnage of the Civil War.
We believe that today is an appropriate time to reclaim the original intent
and promise of Mother's Day as it represent women's historical role in
movements working for peace and justice.
Stephen J Spiro
Catholic Peace Fellowship
Spiro_CatholicPeaceFellowship_NJ@Hotmail.Com
Mother's Day Proclamation
by Julia Ward Howe
Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
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