I get frustrated. I want the world to be a better place, but it seems to be deteriorating around me not just day-by-day, but minute-by-minute. I try to do what I can to have a positive impact on the world while working full-time, raising two small children and being supportive of a husband with a new business. I recycle; I vote. In my life I've been a community activist, political activist, vegan-turned-vegetarian (cheese weakness!) and a teacher. I've worked hard. Yet every time I turn on NPR I hear news of a new tragedy somewhere: a cyclone that killed 2400 people in Bangladesh, a roadside bomb in Iraq that killed soldiers and children during distribution of toys, a nightmare here, a disaster there. I think everyone who is more concerned with activism than apathy gets
frustrated at times.

I think for activists the idea of turning inward to make a difference seems at best futile and at worst like the ghost of the hippie era ("Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me - tra la la!"). I've come to the conclusion that the best way for me to make the world a better place is to become a better, more evolved person. The kindnesses I can muster despite the stress of daily life make as big or a bigger impact than my (also important) activism. I'm not saying that voting and campaigning don't matter, but I am saying that by trying to find some peacefulness inside myself and, as a result, being nicer to the people around me, I make an important impact on the world.

Prayer and meditation are essential to this. I've been meditating and praying for peace for almost twenty years, and it has made a difference (no matter what my cynical husband says). Do you remember those computer-generated "Magic Eye" pictures from a decade ago? It's sort of like that for me; looking at something and seeing it on one level when suddenly a whole new picture emerges - one that was there all the time. When I pray that the world is changing for the better, I start to see a peaceful state develop in the world around me.

With this in mind, on December 10th the Shri Ram Chandra Mission, the organization behind the raja yoga meditation practice Sahaj Marg, is joining with the United Nations to host worldwide prayer sessions for peace. SRCM is a non-profit, non-governmental organization associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information. SRCM is not associated with a church or religion. The idea behind the prayer sessions is that people in communities all over the world will sit together and simultaneously pray that the world is becoming more peaceful. It is hoped the prayers will have a cummulative effect. This event will take place locally in Lakewood, Strongsville, Cleveland, University Heights, and Wooster and coincides with the United Nations Human Rights Day. Human Rights Day is observed worldwide on the occasion of the drafting in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

You're invited. We won't be addressing envelopes for a candidate or making phone calls in support of an important bill. We'll just sit together in a room and imagine that the world is becoming more loving and peaceful. You have to admit it's not a bad way to daydream and in conjunction with other people doing the same thing at the same time in other places, maybe...just maybe...it will make a difference. It certainly can't hurt. Please come and see activism in perhaps a different way, through the heart and mind. We'll be meeting on December 10th at 7:00 in the Women's Pavilion at Lakewood Park. We'll talk first about ideas of how to pray, and then we'll just dive in and do it for about fifteen minutes. Then we'll eat...in a world whose Magic Eye picture just may be more visible by the time we're through.