ALL ARE WELCOME
We gather every Friday morning from 8 AM to 9 AM
A walk in Monument Square, Concord
We walked together in silence during the first Persian Gulf war (1991), and we decided to continue our walk.
We walk now to remember that we are one human family and to mourn the loss of tens of thousands of us to war.
We walk to remember the beauty of the earth and to mourn the destruction that war brings to it.
We walk to gather the strength of the spirit to recommit to the very challenging work of finding ways to resolve our differences without violence -- in our homes, in our towns and cities, and in our world.
We walk in solidarity with other women and men throughout the world in a bond of shared concern which reaches across national boundaries.
And we walk together to remember that we are not seeking peace alone.
This vigil and walk is open to everyone who would like to join us in this prayerful spirit. Join us for the full hour or for any part of the time that is possible.
THE WALK WILL BE IN SILENCE
We ask people to wear black (or a black scarf or arm band) as an expression of mourning for the losses of all kinds generated by war. Thank you.
WEEKLY THOUGHTS
March 29, 2019
February 22, 2019
"We do not have to become heroes overnite," Eleanor once wrote. "Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appears, discovering that we have the strength to stare it down."
- 'No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt' by Doris Kearns Goodwin
February 15, 2019
“Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
February 8, 2019
Something about the New England character:
You know you’re a New Englander if -
- You’re always prepared for maddening, unpredictable weather
- You say there’s no bad weather, only bad clothes
- You know what the Blizzard of ‘78 was
- You’d never really want to live anywhere else
February 1, 2019
“The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
.......
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
― Robert Frost 1914
January 25, 2018
Shoveling Snow with Buddha (ed. And everyone else in Concord this week)
by Billy Collins
In the usual iconography of the temple or the local Wok
you would never see him doing such a thing,
tossing the dry snow over the mountain
of his bare, round shoulder,
his hair tied in a knot,
a model of concentration.
Sitting is more his speed, if that is the word
for what he does, or does not do.
Even the season is wrong for him.
In all his manifestations, is it not warm and slightly humid?
Is this not implied by his serene expression,
that smile so wide it wraps itself around the waist of the universe?
But here we are, working our way down the driveway,
one shovelful at a time.
We toss the light powder into the clear air.
We feel the cold mist on our faces.
And with every heave we disappear
and become lost to each other
in these sudden clouds of our own making,
these fountain-bursts of snow.
This is so much better than a sermon in church,
I say out loud, but Buddha keeps on shoveling.
This is the true religion, the religion of snow,
and sunlight and winter geese barking in the sky,
I say, but he is too busy to hear me.
He has thrown himself into shoveling snow
as if it were the purpose of existence
as if the sign of a perfect life were a clear driveway
you could back the car down easily
and drive off into the vanities of the world
with a broken heater fan and a song on the radio.
All morning long we work side by side,
me with my commentary
and he inside the generous pocket of his silence,
until the hour is nearly noon
and the snow is piled high all around us;
then, I hear him speak.
January 18, 2018
“From When Death Comes, a poem by Mary Oliver (1935-2019) - rest in peace
When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world."
December 28, 2018
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
(from ee cummings)
December 21, 2018
A Christmas Parable
(MLK Jr 1967 Christmas Eve, Ebenezer Baptist Church)
If we don't have good will
toward men in this world,
we will destroy ourselves.
There have always been those who argued
that the end justifies the means,
that the means really aren't important.
But we will never have peace in the world
until men everywhere recognize
that the ends are not cut off from the means.
Because the means represent the ideal in the making
and the end in process.
And ultimately you can't reach good ends
through evil means.
Because the means represent the seed
and the end represents the tree.
(from JohnMannhiem)
December 14, 2018
“It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.”
- Carl Sagan
