AVP, Ireland, Rhythm of Universe
Six inmate AVP facilitators shared their personal journeys: “Though we may be in the gutters some of us still look at the stars” “In the past the people were afraid to approach me because of my reputation of violence, since I became an AVP facilitator people find it...
AVP Leaders around the world
Stories at an Irish Prison
Today about 100 of us AVPers from around the world were invited into Wheatfield Prison meet with 12 inmate facilitators. It was my first bright sun-flecked day in Ireland and the inmate testimonies were even more amazing. We heard from the jail administration who were...
Ireland, War & New Blood
What land that recently fought the Brits for 3 decades calls the violence and degradation: the troubles? Ireland has fought off many invaders before the British such as the Celts and the Romans. Isn't this a remarkable place for the International Alternatives to...
Shedding Dry Scaly Skin
Most days I say I’m not afraid. Then I see a picture of a circle of elephants or a picture of a flock of swans and I’m struck by beauty and fear. My sons are just out of college with no thought of having children. Yet in my dreams a grandchild with big eyes looks up...
Virtues and Vices
Remember the old Lutheran image of there’s a devil sitting on one shoulder telling you to go ahead and do the vice and the angel on the other shoulder telling you to be good and behave properly? As a Quaker it’s a struggle to love myself and change myself. SometimesI...
Open Letter to Gaia
I am your daughter. You have suckled me throughout my life. There is milk and fruits and honey for me to enjoy. You are larger than the prairie, more rugged than any mountaintops, more forgiving than a quilt of snow. You are expansive like the universe, yet tender and...
Plagues Revisit us in 2013
Meteorologists predict forest fires, storms and gargantuan flooding. So if tornadoes are predicted we need to fly into action. NOW. Today. With a Clif Energy Bar in one hand, and a photo of our child’s first day of school in our pocket. We need to work on the...
Exodus- where to where?
You and I are in slavery. We are chained to big corporations that sell us fuel. I can’t live without electricity so I feed into corporate coal, oil and fracking industries every time I turn on the stove, drive a car or recharge my cell phone. But I believe in freedom....
Suffragettes, Chicks and Gitmo
Why would 100 prisoners organize a hunger strike in Guantanamo? Did our Congress answer that question adequately before an army of doctors coerced force feeding? Force feeding is not the opposite of hungering for food. Feeding tubes down the mouth are dangerously...