Peace On Podcast by The Peace Alliance

Description: Our March National Peacebuilder, Suraj Budathoki, co founded Peace Initiative Bhutan to advance positive peace and reconciliation between Bhutan and the Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin. These ethnic Bhutanese were forced to flee Bhutan in the early 1990’s. Suraj wrote an article to explain the history of this forced exile:

The World’s Happiest Country Needs a Peace and Reconciliation Process. 

 

There are now bills in the House and Senate that we can support by calling or writing our representatives. Peace Initiative Bhutan has scheduled Tuesday March 21 from 1pm ET to 4 pm ET as a time to call your Senators and Representatives to support H.R. 228 introduced on 3/14/2023 by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA-17), and S.R. 108 introduced on 3/15/2023 by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). You can call anytime if this time frame does not work for you. You can also call Rep. Khanna and Sen. Sherrod to thank them for sponsoring the bills. Let's lend our support to positive peace and reconciliation!

Marianne Simon shared a deeply personal story about the evolution of her thoughts about her next steps in life. When she began thinking about finding another man to share her life with after being a widow for six years, after 26 years of marriage, she realized that it was not about finding the next ‘big thing’ in her life - be it another man, or where her career would go next in this chapter of her life. Rather, it was about being open to the fire side of her spirit that had remained quiet for so long. It was about saying ‘yes.’ If you didn’t have to focus on your next ‘big thing’ what would you say ‘yes’ to, today? Check the calendar of Events at www.peacealliance.org, join us at our next Hope Story Circle and share your emerging stories!

When Jeff Wallach began to plan the story he might tell, he began with change. This story morphed into a story of survival, and about his passion for full expression. In his home, within his own four walls, he was loved and supported, and felt safe. Outside of those walls, he was under attack from bullies, bigotry, and bad humans. In middle school, a teacher advised him to get out of his shell, he was seen as painfully shy — and recommended that he volunteer at an animal shelter, or a theatre. His mother took him to a community theatre that very weekend, and he found a home and a passion that has lasted for the rest of his life. Making a living as an actor, director, choreographer and teacher, performing arts has been his passion and continues to be. He strives to be a beacon for kids to see who they are, and to shine brightly with glitter and sparkle. How are you living your life, authentically, with full exposure? Check the calendar of Events at www.peacealliance.org, join us at our next Hope Story Circle and share your emerging stories!

The Peace On Podcast is your source for inspiring conversations and information from thought leaders across the spectrum on topics related to the strategies of building peace, fostering nonviolence and creating a world that thrives, shifting our understanding toward empathy, compassion and connection. Our guests this month for our National Monthly Peacebuilders Podcast are JoHanna "J" Thompson and Quincie "Q" Doucet in a dialogue centering the voices of Black women as they explore the concept of “Peace” throughout the diaspora and what Peace looks like for them. Legislative focus: George Floyd Justice in Policing Act https://peacealliance.salsalabs.org/george_floyd_justice_in_policing_act Eric Garner Excessive Force Prevention Act https://peacealliance.salsalabs.org/s244ericgarnerslifematters Sign the petition in support of a US Department of Peacebuilding Act https://peacealliance.salsalabs.org/weneedausdepartmentofpeacebuilding

Karlie Everhart began with a Maya Angelou quote - “you may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” Her story was about her experiences that began with her feeling as though she was not enough, and collecting evidence to support that feeling. While outward perceptions may have been of a very successful woman in her 20’s, and while she was a strong achiever in many ways, she still felt as though she were not enough. Returning to graduate school for her Masters degree in Spiritual Psychology, she began to work with Freedom to Choose, and in doing so, participated in conversations with people in prisons. This has revealed many things to her, and in talking to one inmate who reminded her of her own birth father, she had an awakening allowing her to release the past feelings of being not enough. Check the calendar of Events at www.peacealliance.org, join us at our next Hope Story Circle and share your emerging stories!

Jerry Downs is an accomplished photographer and artist, and brought a story about the importance of allowing creativity. The fifth in a family of eleven children, when he wasn’t doing well in his first year of school having not attended preschool or kindergarten and not knowing how to read or do simple arithmetic, his teacher met with his parents. Their decision was that until he learned to read, he was not to be allowed to draw at all. Drawing had been his life, and his identity until that time. Looking back, he felt compassion for his parents, and for his teacher in giving that direction, seeing that they were doing the best that they could. Still, his life expression has been to release creativity and create connection. From his book, Why You Were Born, which is available for free download from his website: “We are all in this together. It’s the reason we were all born. All the answers reside within you. Listen.” Check the calendar of Events at www.peacealliance.org, join us at our next Hope Story Circle and share your emerging stories!

 

We began the New Year of Hope Story Circles with Marie Murtagh. Marie shared a story about personal evolution, and how she once saw herself as small and limited based on her perceptions and circumstances, and has expanded. Especially during the time of Covid, she took on a journey of observation, reflection and study. She felt physically different, and saw that the pillars of society once thought to be unshakable lose their strength. Exploring new thoughts of complexity and simplicity, she found ways to expand and now knows that her mission is to serve. What wisdom do each of us have to bring forward? Check the calendar of Events at www.peacealliance.org, join us at our next Hope Story Circle and share your emerging stories!