IFOR Women Peacemakers Program Asian Consultation 2011

Greetings of Peace to you!

The IFOR - WPP Asian consultation was held in the Philippines recently and I was blessed to have been invited for this event. I was truly honored to be in the midst of some amazing Brothers and Sisters of Peace. I am in admiration of their work, commitment, passion and dedication for social activism. My gratitude to the IFOR - WPP team for this opportunity. Here is a brief of what IFOR - WPP is all about:

The International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) believes that without peace, development is impossible, and without women, neither peace nor development can take place. Given that women and girls begin from a disadvantaged position, women's empowerment is a key step towards gender equality in peacebuilding. While there has been progress towards women’s empowerment, much work still remains.

IFOR's Women Peacemakers Program (IFOR/WPP) has been established in 1997 to support and empower women peace activists. We actively advocate for the recognition of women’s experiences of war and conflict and the integration of a gender perspective in peacebuilding processes.

Mission Statement and Objectives

IFOR/WPP’s mission is to support the empowerment of gender-sensitive women and men for the transformation of conflict through active nonviolence.

This is done through the following core activities:
- Providing gender-sensitive nonviolence education and training;
- Networking and regional and global capacity building
- Gender mainstreaming the peace movement

WPP’s work includes lobby and advocacy for the implementation of important UN Security Council Resolutions in the field of women, peace and security (WPS); UNSCR 1325, 1820, 1888, 1889 and 1960. The WPP believes the women, peace and security agenda needs to be debated and analyzed with a critical lens. This involves looking at gender beyond a narrow focus on women in order to understand and address its relational aspects, which necessitates further exploration of the masculinities perspective. It also requires asking critical questions about the link between gender and militarism, and advocating for a security concept from a feminist perspective.

The upcoming years, the WPP focus will also include a focus on the constructive role faith-based peacebuilding can play in countering religious fundamentalism and armed conflict, and the need for a gender perspective in this as well.

Love Messages

Greetings of Love.... I hope all is well with you and I would like to share this message written by my friend Nick Ralls. Love, Light and Peace to you = )

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I switch on my own light switch so that I can then see the light in others.

I honor the light in the world, the light in others and the light in myself.

I have my hand on the switch.

WHAT do you see when you look at another human being?

Can we see the light of God in that person?

Can we see them as an amazing ball of love energy?

What stops us?

Try as we may, we will find it very difficult to behold the light in others unless we are fully switched on ourselves.

That is because, put simply, everyone in our life mirrors us.

They reflect back to us what we see and feel about ourselves.

So unless we feel our own light, see our own light and hear our own light it is

going to be so much harder to behold it magnificently in other human beings.

The prevalent thoughts we hold about ourselves will be presented back to us.

So the more we focus on what we lack, our inadequacies, our shortfalls, our

doubts and our insecurities the more we will find this reflected in our outside relationships and experiences.

It is as simple as that, really.

But it would be a cruel universe that would leave us in this misery of self reflection.

Because we are given angels... messengers of love... to help us switch our light on.

They will come into our life to hand us a reminder.

The reminder is just who we really are and just how much love is encased in our very being.

And when we are switched onto the light in us we can also appreciate and tune into the light in others.

So when we feel we are out of light... not switched on... we have only to ask a loving and abundant universe and the door opening to the light is opened unto us.

See your own light... see the light of others.

But it all starts with us.

So let's do an inventory... let us now count our blessings, let us recount and

honor our good deeds our acts of love, and let us focus on that which is good and

that which is loving in our lives.

Let us salute the light of God in us so that we can also salute it in others.

Global Love Day

Wishing You a Happy Global Love Day - May 1st Celebrating Our Humanity

Founder's Global Love Day Address As we gather together on this symbolic day, we acknowledge and celebrate our universal humanity while sharing the song of our common heartbeat. This is a profound and spectacular moment to be alive as both participant and witness to an amazing transformation and return to love on our precious planet. The vastness of our world is rapidly becoming more intimate and we are quickly realizing the complexity of life can only be resolved through the simplicity of love. This love does not depend on words as it is readily felt from heart to heart. It is experienced in the forgiveness and compassion we offer to others and the self acceptance we give ourselves. Respect, honor and dignity are the immediate and lasting impression while the ultimate expression is in the smallest gestures of kindness that change the destiny for so many. We are the weavers of this love and are also intricately woven into the very fabric of life itself. Our magnificent earth is a living example of this innate and natural love and it is our great fortune to be the stewards and examples of unconditional love towards all living things. Coming together like a grand tapestry, our diverse interconnectedness and interdependence is the very thing that unites us as one. We all share a common, universal bond of amazing potential through love and each of us makes a profound difference just by being who we are. The ideas we entertain in our consciousness today are the seeds of a future yet to be made. And when love is the key component of each thought and feeling, a truly beautiful world is born. This time is not without extraordinary challenges as we move forward, yet love endures the most difficult circumstances and still remains as love. There is great strength in intimacy, incredible opportunity with courage, and, as we lead by the example of love, we walk together with all. Welcome everyone to our eighth anniversary celebration of Global Love Day. Love, light and peace, Harold W. Becker Founder and President The Love Foundation, Inc

Earth Day -- April 22

Earth Day 2011: A Billion Acts of Green®

In recognition of the power of millions of individual actions, Earth Day 2011 will be organized around A Billion Acts of Green®: Personal, organizational and corporate pledges to live and act sustainably. At over 45 million actions to date, A Billion Acts of Green® campaign – the largest environmental service campaign in the world – is steadily building commitments by individuals, corporations, and governments in honor of Earth Day. A Billion Acts of Green® inspires and rewards both simple individual acts and larger organizational initiatives that further the goal of measurably reducing carbon emissions and supporting sustainability. The goal is to register one billion actions in advance of the Earth Summit in Rio in 2012. A Billion Acts of Green® website quantifies acts of green through an easy-to-use online registration tool. A Billion Acts of Green® demonstrates the kind of environmental impact that can be made when millions of people, corporations and organizations make commitments, both small and large, to better their environment.

Elements of the 2011 Earth Day campaign include:

• Athletes for the Earth: Bringing the voices of Olympic and professional athletes to the environmental movement
• The Canopy Project: Supporting global reforestation
• Green Schools: Greening America’s Schools within a Generation
• Women and Green Economy (WAGE)™: Engaging women leaders in the creation and development of a global green economy
• Creating Climate Wealth: Convening 200 of the world’s entrepreneurs to solve climate change and create a new green economy
• Arts for the Earth: Celebrating the work of environmental artists in all media, and partnering with the American Association of Museums to bring sustainability to museums nationwide

Athletes for the Earth™: Bringing the voices of Olympic and professional athletes to the environmental movement, Athletes for the Earth™ has a proven track record in illustrating the interaction of athletes with their environment and connecting popular athletic activities with environmental stewardship. Participating athlete/celebs include Olympic Gold Medalist Billy Demong, Olympic Bronze Medalist Andrew Weibrecht, World Champion Freeskier and founder of the Save Our Snow Foundation Alison Gannett, Boston Bruins Defenseman Andrew Ference, Olympic Gold Medal swimmer Aaron Peirsol, and NFL linebacker Dhani Jones.

The Canopy Project: In 2010, Earth Day Network planted over 1 million trees in 16 countries under the Avatar Home Tree Initiative. In 2011, EDN will continue that effort with another 1 million trees in large-scale, sponsor‐supported tree-planting projects in partnership with non‐profit organizations throughout the world. Locations where reforestation is most urgently needed include Haiti, Brazil, Mexico and urban areas of the US. Help us green our future, one million trees at a time.

Women and the Green Economy (WAGE)™: To accelerate and provide the new thinking and creative power for a global post-carbon economy, Earth Day Network is engaging women business, government and NGO leaders in its “Women and the Green Economy” (WAGE™) campaign. Our goal is to create a policy agenda for Rio+20 and relevant generate national initiatives that will promote the green economy, secure educational and job training opportunities for women and channel green investment to benefit women.

Arts for the Earth™: Arts for the Earth is an innovative education program developed to teach sustainability and environmental education through museum and arts community networks.

"Action for Life" team visits Malaysia.

The Malaysian "Initiatives of Change" family welcomed the "Action for Life" team members this February 2011. It is wonderful and inspiring to meet young people like these who believe in becoming the change they want to see in this world and committing to the change through their actions.

To know more about AFL, you may click on the link: http://www.afl.iofc.org

What is Action for Life?

Action for Life (AfL) aims to develop a new generation of change-makers, equipped with integrity and faith who are committed to bringing transformation in the world, starting with themselves.

Its action-based training programmes have run periodically over the past 10 years in India, spreading out to develop and support young change-makers and their initiatives in many countries of Asia and the Pacific, in Africa, Europe and the Americas.

AfL centres on releasing locked potential through inner change and inspiration. It uses a combination of interactive training and fieldwork to expand the capacity of each participant. Distinctively, participants and staff come from different generations, nations, and faiths to form a diverse learning and working community that represents an increasingly globalised world.

What AfL Gives Participants:

Based on a philosophy of service and integrity Action for Life gives participants:

Personal development

• space for reflection in the daily practice of quiet contemplation
• training and practice in methods for discerning moral clarity and taking action
• team-building and management in diverse and challenging environments
• well-developed frameworks for operating between cultures, religions and generations
• study of conflict resolution and prevention; examination of personal, corporate and regional conflict and the transformation that comes through the dynamic of individual and collective healing
• training and hands-on experience in creating and presenting workshops, conferences, camps and cultural events
• connect with and support bridge builders and social leaders working in various fields; business, government and charity
• experience in the development and maintenance of a diverse community
• education on the key issues impacting Asia through lectures, personal encounters and travel

What AfL Gives the World:

• A living example of global community that supports and inspires others to bring positive change
• A platform for young people to bring their vision for their communities and nations into reality
• A new generation of leaders equipped with integrity and inner strength ready to serve without seeking personal gain

Welcoming 2011 - The Year of Love

Wishing you a Blessed and Joyous 2011! I declare 2011 to be the Year of Love. In the photo to the left, I am with my friends Elaine and Megan in Sydney, Australia. Elaine is one of my best friends and our friendship has spanned across the time of 25 years. She is so very loving and always takes great care of me, when ever I visit her. A wonderful example of Unconditional Love and genuine friendship. In that spirit, I would like to share a message about love with you, written by my friend Nick Ralls.

WE JUST NEED TO LOVE MORE.. AND IT BEGINS WITH OURSELVES!

I love myself more.. I love others more... I know that there is no limit to the amount of love I can pour onto either myself or others. I shed false beliefs that loving myself is wrong or to restrict love to just some others. I am love and I reveal it.

WE can never love ourselves too much.

Our reluctance to like ourselves.. or love ourselves even... comes about because of a sense of feeling unworthy or not lovable.

For too long we have blamed ourselves when people turn away from us or when a love affair dies.

For too long we have bought into false ideas and beliefs that not only do not serve us in our life but also are simply not true.

For too long we have felt almost guilty or shameful when we have started or taken on a practice of loving ourselves.

Yet for every moment we are not loving ourselves or not liking ourselves we are also denying our essence which is pure love.

Because we are love we can love ourselves unconditionally as we so much hope to love others.

If we find it hard to love others or some others it is usually because we have not done a good enough job in loving ourselves.

Our love life always begins with us.

To the degree we cannot love and accept ourselves for who we are we cannot love and accept other people for who they are.

If we cannot behold our own divinity, we simply will not see, hear or feel the divinity in others.

Put another way, if we cannot see the sparkling diamond that glows in the hearts of all those in our life then it is because we are not fully recognizing or appreciating the diamond that shines so brightly in us.

What happens when we love ourselves so much?

For a start, nothing bad happens.

We do not become selfish, arrogant, egotistical, self serving or show up as a bad person. Those who sadly do not love themselves demonstrate negative behaviors.

What happens is that we connect with the truth of who we really are and acknowledge that we are love.

And as we love ourselves so much our overflow of love spills over onto everyone around us.

Most of our false beliefs, bad patterns stem from bad programming that we are simply not good enough, do not deserve this or that, lack this or that or that life is somehow a trial to be undergone, a battleground.

This could not be further from the truth of who we are and why we are here although our ego mind will perpetuate these myths to keep us in a state of isolation and individualism.

It is simply not true that we should deny ourselves any amount of love.. as we should not deny any other person any amount of love also.

It is simply not true that we can love ourselves too much..just as it is simply not true that we can love others too much.

The opposite is true.

Our problems come about because we simply do not love ourselves enough... that we do not love others as much as we could... that there is a limit or lack of love.

But when we realize that loving people is for our own good as much as theirs our life can change.

Each time we pour love either onto ourselves or others we are giving a message to the universe: I AM LOVE, I love and receive love

And so it is... with love.