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Our theme this year is Finding Peace in Overwhelming Times Go to blog4peace.com for complete details
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Blog 4 Peace Day NOV 4, 2017 ~ Finding Peace In Overwhelming Times

Welcome to the 12th year of peace blogging in the Blogosphere. BlogBlast For Peace  (aka Blog 4 Peace) is held annually on November 4.  We'd love for you to join us.

This year's theme is...

Finding Peace in Overwhelming Times

Tell us your stories. Send in your peace globes.  YOUR experience in the midst of whatever trying circumstances you've walked through, can shine a light of hope for others who might be searching for a way out of their own darkness.

It seems that every calamity known to mankind is visited upon our planet all at once right NOW. Do you know that feeling? The struggles I'm seeing in the world appear magnified in scope this year, capable of stealing our joy, our happiness, our peace. One catastrophe doesn't end before a new calamity begins. We are daily putting out fires to simply maintain our existence and sanity.  Global sanity is in short supply this year.  I've noticed the toll our societal woes, natural disasters, mass shootings, and the never-ending political battering is taking on people in their private lives. Depression Poverty. Illness. Grief. Addiction. Joblessness. War. Famine. Hurricanes. Fires. Climate Social media bullying. Divorce. Uncertainty. Discrimination. Despair. Refugees. Suffering. Domestic terrorism. Human trafficking. Shrinking health care or no health care. Nations on the brink of nuclear war. Personal anxiety at an all-time high.  Financial lack. Corruption. Injustice. Rioting. You Name It We've Seen It in 2017. Angry angry people everywhere. Incredible STRESS. 

People.are.overwhelmed.

People are discouraged.

People are worried.

And yet, the power in this movement has always been the power in our words.

Look at the header of this page - "If words are powerful...then this matters." That's been our motto since November 2006.  I believe it even more in the year 2017.

I flew the 1st one in 2006.

This year, let's ENCOURAGE, EMPOWER and UPLIFT each other with well-chosen words, personal stories, and our beautiful peace globes - the symbol we use to declare we are peace bloggers! 

There are 214 countries/territories involved in this movement - on blogs and all manner of social media.  Every continent is represented. 

This year we are going deeper. 
I'm asking that you embrace your own vulnerability and figure out how you personally handle adversity. Because we all need a plan. A cure. A soft place to fall. 
  Ask yourself: How do I stay peaceful in the middle of chaos? What do I do when my world falls apart? Do I run? Do I hunker down and hide? Or do I find a way through to the other side? Maybe you're struggling to even answer those questions. That's OK. If you don't know the answers to those four questions, then it's time you take inventory and figure out a reliable go-to remedy....because you surely have one.  Whether it's healthy or destructive, you have one. 
And in the current climate of calamity on planet Earth, we could all use a dose of good common sense strategies.    I'll bet we can come up with some pretty awesome practical solutions to manage stress during this craziness.  

Use the next 30 days to think about this question -   

 How do I find peace in overwhelming times? 

In a world that's adrift with constant anxiety and unpredictability, that Latin 3-word mantra prayer we've been uttering all these years on our peace globes is needed more than ever: 

Dona nobis pacem

Grant us peace

HELPFUL LINKS!
Free peace globe templates to use
How To Blog 4 Peace 
Blog 4 Peace on Facebook
Globe Sightings Across theWorld

We forward to seeing you on November 4th. Click the links on this page for templates and complete instructions on how to get a peace globe and participate.  Or visit us on the Blog4Peace Facebook Page.  

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10 Reasons Why The World Cannot End Today

Surely you've heard the apocalyptic warning by now that the world as we know it, will end today. Today's random date was picked for Biblical AND Astrological reasons (!) which makes it all the more cringeworthy and credible. Let me paraphrase the experts. I do it all the time on the blog. They never mind and no one has sued me. Yet. 
Apparently, Virgo is in some sort of birth travail at the moment and Pisces...or was it Pisces having the astral baby....ONE of them is about to give birth and the tail of some star chart is aligned with the head of said pregnant skirt-wearing constellation which is supposed to cause a nasty collision with the planet Nibiru  (aka Planet X) first told to us by a woman in Wisconsin who says aliens planted a microphone in her brain and dubbed her prophetic and wise, at which point said cataclysmic collision and explosion of the earth's crust will cause a calamitous event meant to evacuate either (1) all the Christians who are ready to meet Jesus  (2) all the Republicans who won't vote for repeal and replace (that would be ONE)  or (3) all the Democrats who secretly pretend to abhor Republican hold-outs for their "self-righteous" ways but really just want the same thing in a different bottle on most days minus a few whippersnappers with common sense and compassion. Amen and amen.  That leaves maybe 3 people in the House and 1 in Congress give or take a few janitors. 

During Bloggingham's solar eclipse in my backyard.
What do you see?

And ALL of this was foretold by clouds during the recent Solar Eclipse and rooted in ancient numerology. 
See how I explained that so succinctly?
Ten Reasons Why The World Cannot End Today



1. Homer needs a bath

2. I need a bath
3. I have a pie in the oven I ain't takin' no half-baked crust to Jesus

4. Baby Beans has to return the shopping cart.  But first I have to get him out of it.

Hurry up, Baby Beans!
 We have a disaster to attend.

5. I'm too busy running to the emergency room. Mama fell and broke her hand.  And now sheeee needs a bath. Who is gonna do it? Yours Truly


6. My lesson plans are overdue. Again.  I figured if the world was going to end we wouldn't need them next week. Strangely, my principal did not agree.
7. ULTA is having a sale.
8. I need to read the end of three books I haven't finished. I don't think there are any book clubs where I'm going....

9.   I haven't downloaded all the solar eclipse shenanigans that happened in the woods of Bloggingham. Dancing with a moonsun was epic and life-changing.   I wore a moon-smock and saw a woman in the clouds. You see her too, right?

and last but certainly not least.... are we still here????
10.  There are peace globes to gather. Peace globes to blog. Peace globes!  Peace globes! Peace globes! Do you have your peace globe?

Now if you'll excuse me, my pie is burning. As most of you predicted it would.  See? Now THAT's credible.


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Hurricane Irma ~ Waiting Out a Storm

When I was a young girl growing up in the south, my great-grandmother lived next door. We called her Granny. She wore her hair in a beautiful French braid that she twisted and turned up her back each morning with hardly a glance in the mirror. Why is this important? Because Granny had some grit about her, a treasure trove of stability and routine (hence, the daily hairdo) and a mountain of faith, notwithstanding that tiny bit of friendly black magic that cured my daily ailments, bumps and bruises. She called it Jesus healing. I called it magic. 
Thankfully, one fine day, those two terms met in my inquisitive peace-seeking mind and melded together into my own faith, based on my own unique experiences, seamlessly solidified by watching her and others in my life, walk out a daily regimen of beliefs that kept them grounded and kept me safe. 
One of my fondest memories with her involved storms. Thunderstorms to be exact. Lightning and thunder. Flashes of frightening noises on the tobacco farm, where a strike of lightning could torch a barn and wipe out a year's income. One such bad afternoon storm when the power went out and the winds were

Mimosa tree

blowing the Mimosa tree in the backyard, I remember Granny walking over to our house to wait out the storm, carrying a spit can for her snuff.  You know what snuff is, right?
Children were not allowed to run and play during a storm or make any loud noises. It was time to sit down, listen for outside calamity like falling trees and wait it out together. I had an upright black piano at the time and I wanted to play, but Granny said, "Shhhhhhh. Hush, Child. That's too loud, but we can quietly sing."
So, with a bundle of my French-braided kin and a pan of snap peas to string, she taught me this song. It's an old Gospel hymn written by Thomas Mosie Lister called "Til The Storm Passes By". I later learned to play it for her from the United Methodist hymnal while my mother sang the tune standing behind me. 
  Hushhhhh child.... not today....there's a storm  a'brewin... 'Til the storm passes over 'Til the thunder sounds no more 'Til the clouds roll forever from the sky Hold me close Let me stand in the hollow of Thy hand Keep me safe 'Til the storm passes by   There are millions of people waiting out  massive Hurricane Irma at the moment. They have much more to worry about than downed tobacco barns and falling trees, although that is also devastating in perspective. Since the path has shifted west, Bloggingham may be spared from flooding and tornado winds, but if Irma has proven anything it's how unpredictably fickle she can be.  We shall see. 
I pray for the peace that passes all understanding in the midst of this storm. Granny's soothing touch and the sound of my mother's beautiful voice gave that peace to me so long ago, as do these lyrics when I'm faced with wailing winds.
I wish I could sit with her today and sing while she braided my hair and told me to hush in her no-nonsense loving way. And if you need to sing, here's a song from my childhood home to yours.  (P.S. Now that the storm is over, I hope you all made it through with no worries...)
Lynda Randle has a nice version of this hymn on YouTube if you'd like to listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nKcYFQfe3A
Images: Pixabay
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Can a Solar Eclipse Teach Us To Live In Peace?

My biggest fear in the seventies was whether or not my brothers would be drafted to go to Vietnam. They weren't, but my uncles served stints in southeast Asia. As worrisome and serious as that was, I could never have envisioned the state our world is in now or that we would experience the horrors of terrorism at such a brutal inhumane level. The word suicide-bomber wasn't in my vocabulary in the seventies. 
It's on our collective minds tonight.  The threats. The bluster. The bullying across the sea. It feels like the world might tilt and fall into an abyss. In a few days, citizens in many parts of the world will share the phenomenon of a solar eclipse. A celebration of the wonders of the universe we share!  We wouldn't exist without our solar system holding us in space. For just one day planet Earth will feel connected as her humans stare at a power that is magnificently aligned and bigger than themselves. We are at its mercy, this power.  When the moon, the sun, and earth peacefully intersect, we will don our funny looking glasses and stand in awe. It somehow doesn't compute that we may be on the eve of destruction.
If the will of the moon and sun can coincide peacefully without extinction, while all of humanity looks on, then surely man has an obligation to preserve and honor life on the planet that's bequeathed to him.
 That worrisome 'draft' word has been replaced with 'nuclear' annihilation.  And as dire as that is, we can't stop speaking for, hoping for, praying for peace.

Do it. Don't ever stop.

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Monday Mimisms ~ Let's Talk About Depression

Once upon a long time ago, I had a part-time job working for a salesman who lived in my neighborhood. I needed extra cash and he needed a secretary to keep him and his endless sales paperwork organized and accurate. It was a perfect arrangement.
My boss was a funny guy, albeit with a cynical side, who had an unfortunate penchant for near constant migraines. Much of the time he was in terrible pain, barely able to function. On the road to sales calls, we spent lots of time talking about our lives and families, while I recorded data and created invoices. This brief blip on the road of my life would ordinarily seem unremarkable, except for one telling conversation I've never forgotten to this day.
One day I noticed he was particularly anxious. Nervous. Jittery. Unwell. I asked him what troubled him so. He divulged very little and simply replied, "Mimi, just remember this -
stress'll kill ya."

A few years later, he committed suicide.

Beyond being sad and grieved for his lovely family, I found it oddly prophetic. When I am overwhelmed and anxious, I sometimes hear his pain-filled voice say....."stress'll kill ya." He was warning me to try to learn to control the stress in my own life.  I wish he could have found his way out of that space. What I've noticed lately is this: There are a lot of people walking around with what I call Life PTSD.  They're not clinically depressed, not on medication, and not in therapy. But their situations and circumstances seem to constantly spiral from hope to despair and back again, the likes of which a tilt-a-whirl ride has never seen. In today's world,This Is Your Brain on Drugs has morphed into This Is Your Brain on Life. 
Cumulative situational depression is a very real struggle. It is rampant in the society we live in today. It steals your joy. It fogs your brain. It hurts your relationships. It tears you down physically in ways that doctors are only beginning to truly understand. There is no way around - only through.
And we need to talk about it.

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