Photographic Peace Quotes Calendar 2006

2006-12-31T14:08:00.000-05:00

As the sun sets on 2006, I send gratitude to my faithful readers as I close this chapter of my life as a daily Photographic Peace Quotes Calendar-keeper.

After 365 daily entries, I am ready to move onto the next adventure. Come visit me at my Windchime Walker blog to see what that may be.

I end this entry in the unshaken belief that "Peace is possible."

2006-12-30T22:35:00.000-05:00

Does the execution of a tyrant make the world a safer, more peaceful place or does it simply add to the cycle of violence?

2006-12-29T19:00:00.000-05:00

Are 3000 dead Americans enough? Are 600,000 dead Iraqis enough? When will it be enough?

2006-12-28T23:55:00.000-05:00

Wasn't it Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection?

2006-12-27T23:59:00.000-05:00

Four years ago this week, the harbor was frozen solid and ice fishing was a popular activity. Today there is no ice and our average temperatures here in southeastern Michigan have been at least ten degrees above normal.

And some people still question the reality of global warming?

2006-12-26T19:02:00.000-05:00

Water as a human rights issue is not confined to developing countries.

In 2003 here in Detroit and Highland Park, Michigan, 40,000 families had their water cut off for non-payment. It was one of the coldest winters in Michigan history. At one point, a third of the students in Detroit public schools did not have running water at home.

This was while Mr. Bush was spending billions of our tax dollars and sending the young people of this and other poor communities off to fight in his war to "liberate" Iraq.

2006-12-25T23:30:00.000-05:00

This Blue Morpho butterfly landed in the exact center of a yellow metal butterfly sculpture in Detroit's Butterfly Garden. How many of us manage to land in the place where we will look our best?

2006-12-24T19:26:00.000-05:00

I don't care if she IS making my favorite stuffing, I am NOT going to your mother's for Christmas dinner!

2006-12-23T23:09:00.000-05:00

Sisters are always sisters, it's just that sometimes their paths go in such different directions that finding a meeting place can be hard.

2006-12-22T23:58:00.000-05:00

Some cities go full circle and begin to look like where their inhabitants originally came from. Can you believe this is Detroit in 2006?

2006-12-21T05:43:00.000-05:00

Each new day brings with it the possibility of peace, but how hard it is to believe that.

2006-12-20T00:06:00.000-05:00

I've just started using this photo on my desktop. Every time I see it, it makes my eyes happy. Vivid colour does that.

2006-12-19T00:01:00.000-05:00

My mother died after a good long life. Her passing was as gentle as a summer breeze.

But what can be said about the deaths of Iraqis, American troops and their allies, aid workers and journalists in Mr. Bush's war on and occupation of Iraq? How can we sit back and let it go on? More importantly, how can we stop it?

2006-12-18T00:15:00.000-05:00

Politicians do what politicians are trained to do: make their campaign donors happy. It is not the individual politicians we must change, but our entire governmental system.

2006-12-17T00:47:00.000-05:00

I used to turn up my nose at what I thought were ostentatious Christmas light displays. That was until I scooted into the middle of this display and found my child-self with her mouth hanging open in wonder and delight. Now I say thank you to those who take the time to create magic for their neighbors.

2006-12-16T00:01:00.000-05:00

Whenever we take the time to look inside something, we find worlds we didn't know existed.

2006-12-15T00:41:00.000-05:00

Phil and Scott have been loving partners for 18 years. In a society where more than half of all marriages end in divorce, shouldn't we celebrate couples like Phil and Scott as models of faithfulness?

2006-12-14T00:59:00.000-05:00

There is a sadness underlying all the holiday preparations this year. Until we get out of Iraq, close down Quantanamo and stop torturing prisoners, joy will be hard for Americans to find.

2006-12-13T02:15:00.000-05:00

When I saw my country's flag obscured through gauzy blinds, it looked right. I don't know if I'll ever feel pride in that symbol again.

2006-12-12T01:33:00.000-05:00

In a country like the United States where so many of us have never experienced war firsthand, fireworks are pure entertainment. But for our sisters and brothers in Iraq? Pure terror.

2006-12-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

Dissent is patriotic.

2006-12-10T00:25:00.000-05:00

Fresh snow is so beautiful that the inconveniences it brings are easy to excuse. Beauty's like that.

2006-12-09T00:36:00.000-05:00

There are times to look up and times to look down. With all that is happening in the world, I find the skies a great comfort.

2006-12-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

Each of us holds the seed of peace within our hearts. May we find ways to nurture the growth, not just of our own seed, but of those of our sisters and brothers across the globe. These are seeds that need to come to fruition for our planet to survive.

2006-12-07T00:32:00.000-05:00

As winter approaches and the trees have shed their leafy garments, I can see birds more clearly. I guess even beauty can obstruct the truth of things.

2006-12-06T13:33:00.000-05:00

Even on the coldest days, a greenhouse protects tender plants. May we as a world community create such an atmosphere where the fragile flower of peace can grow and thrive.

2006-12-05T22:51:00.000-05:00

European-Americans often forget that the people we call illegal immigrants may well be descended from families that were here before us.

2006-12-04T23:04:00.000-05:00

There are countless flames of peace in our world today… most are hidden, each is different, and all are essential to the whole.

2006-12-03T17:59:00.000-05:00

Either everything is sacred or nothing is.

2006-12-02T22:28:00.000-05:00

Just as PhotoShop can turn an ordinary picture of brown leaves into a work of art, so our willingness to imagine a world without war can open our hearts and minds to new possibilities for peace.

2006-12-01T23:42:00.000-05:00

AIDS stole my train buddy and heart friend Joel Payne on November 30, 1994. On every World AIDS Day since then, Joels' beautiful tenor voice sings his song in the surf of his beloved Pacific Ocean.

May the pharmaceutical companies open their ears and hearts to Joels' song, and make their life-saving drugs available to all AIDS and HIV sufferers across the globe.

2006-11-30T23:26:00.000-05:00

When world leaders see events through eyes distorted by their own hubris, it puts us all at risk.

2006-11-29T00:01:00.000-05:00

A November bouquet of fresh flowers helps keep my annual "winter's dread" away.

2006-11-28T10:42:00.000-05:00

Our past is often hidden in plain sight.

2006-11-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

Like this eucalyptus we must keep stretching up into the sunlit skies where hope exists. Let us believe that peace is possible between Israel and Palestine.

2006-11-26T02:17:00.000-05:00

We can't wait any longer. We MUST bring our troops home now!

2006-11-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

This quilt made by the Sacred Web Women of Canada's Western Provinces shows our human capacity to wed beauty with usefulness. As the western world indulges in its annual holiday buying orgy, where is the beauty or the usefulness in our purchases?

2006-11-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

So what are you most thankful for? For me it is the gift of living in a country where most of us can still sit down to a peaceful dinner with friends and family.

2006-11-23T00:44:00.000-05:00

When you eat your pumpkin pie, save a bit for the squirrels. They love pumpkins too.

2006-11-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

May we never lose sight of the wonders around us.

2006-11-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

How comforting it must be to see Mommy and Daddy waiting to catch us when we take a risk.

2006-11-20T00:47:00.000-05:00

These leaves will be mulch for next spring's flowers. Mother Nature was the first and remains the best recycler.

2006-11-19T18:54:00.000-05:00

I painted this in my journal four years ago on the November day that my mother died. Her passing was so gentle that all I could see was light.

2006-11-18T19:23:00.000-05:00

Do you remember the last time you jumped for joy?

2006-11-17T13:21:00.000-05:00

Rain clouds are rare and welcome guests in arid lands, yet we so often call them "bad weather."

2006-11-16T13:13:00.000-05:00

At 88, Lyle Dolyert still looks the world straight in the eyes and says it like he sees it. After 65 years of activism, this Canadian is a model of "Do it, don't just talk about it!" Two weeks after I took this picture, Lyle was out at the coldest, rainiest anti-war demonstration I've ever attended. Talk about being "in it for the long haul"!

2006-11-15T00:01:00.000-05:00

A year ago today I was sitting down to lunch in Aramoun, Lebanon with Rabih, Sulaima, their five children and Rabih's mother Aisha. Fatima had made one of her specialties, a delicious tomato eggplant dish. A colorful sunset would soon draw us out onto the balcony overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. We could never have imagined that war would come in eight months' time.

2006-11-14T01:58:00.000-05:00

What do you see when you look at these orange branches against the blue sky? If you're a botanist, you see one thing; if a child, quite another. So which is the truth?

Both.

2006-11-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

One person's sunset is another’s dawn.

2006-11-12T14:08:00.000-05:00

There's enough for everyone if we'd learn to share.

2006-11-11T01:17:00.000-05:00

Will the needs of each person in this picture be represented by the 110th Congress?

2006-11-10T00:01:00.000-05:00

After these American midterm elections of 2006, I see the eagle standing a little taller and prouder than he was a week ago. So are we all.

2006-11-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

All it takes is a drop of hope.

2006-11-08T00:34:00.000-05:00

As our U.S. government thaws and changes shape, the ice of the past six years breaks up and open waters create avenues for peace.

2006-11-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

"Hope is a duty, isn't it?"

...quote by Walid Demachkie, my friend in Beirut

2006-11-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

November's full moon with its unblinking eye sees through all pretense and deceit. May we voters here in America do the same.

2006-11-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

I vividly recall a dream in which I skimmed over the surface of a lake feet-first on my back. When I see birds fly like this, I know how it feels.

2006-11-04T00:01:00.000-05:00

As snow showers hit Michigan and nighttime temperatures drop into the 20s, how sweet it is to recall the hot summer day when I took this picture.

2006-11-03T00:29:00.000-05:00

Remember the days when you and your friends would jump into the piles of leaves your dad had raked to the curb? How after you'd scattered them everyplace, he'd make you rake them neatly into a pile again? Remember the smell of burning leaves, the crackling sound they'd make, the excitement you felt as you stood beside the bonfire?

2006-11-02T01:14:00.000-05:00

If America doesn't get the regime change it needs in next Tuesday's election, lots of us are going to be looking like the snow monkeys pictured above.

2006-11-01T00:46:00.000-05:00

Children get along. Why can't we?

2006-10-31T02:03:00.000-05:00

What do you want to be for Halloween? I want to be a butterfly, a symbol of transformation.

2006-10-30T01:05:00.000-05:00

Our planet is home to some of the most outrageously beautiful creatures imaginable.

2006-10-29T12:01:00.000-05:00

The most dangerous leaders are those who refuse to remember what has gone before.

2006-10-28T01:08:00.000-04:00

I know it may sound silly but sometimes having your city's team win an important game or series of games can feel like the sun coming out from behind a dark cloud. Anything that brings people together in joy is good.

2006-10-27T01:00:00.000-04:00

Do you ever stop and consider with which animal you resonate most deeply? For me it is the squirrel. Perhaps it is their high energy and ability to leap from branch to branch when I have trouble just putting one foot in front of the other. The squirrel does for me what I cannot do for myself--it allows me to fly through the air!

2006-10-26T00:41:00.000-04:00

Do you ever wonder why maple leaves become outrageously beautiful just before they fall to the ground? Maybe its that they have nothing left to lose.

2006-10-25T01:31:00.000-04:00

Traveling by train grounds you in the here and now.

2006-10-24T00:02:00.000-04:00

Who do you most admire? For me it's the ones who put their bodies on the line for their principles. People like Diane Wilson who, on the day I took this picture, was on Day 20 of a water-only fast to bring the troops home from Iraq. She eventually broke her fast on Day 32 at a meal with the Iraqi parliamentarians in Amman, Jordan.

2006-10-23T02:00:00.000-04:00

Beauty is enough.

2006-10-22T12:54:00.000-04:00

There are as many ways to work for peace as there are persons on the planet. The key is to find the one that is uniquely your own...and then DO it.

2006-10-21T01:23:00.000-04:00

When I get discouraged in my work for peace, this quotation comforts me. I hope it comforts you too.

2006-10-20T00:03:00.000-04:00

2006-10-19T01:50:00.000-04:00

It's getting harder and harder to keep from closing our ears, minds and hearts to the cries of the wounded of the world. But if we do, who will act on their behalf?

2006-10-18T01:18:00.000-04:00

Whenever I think about how much I love the house Ed and I have lived in for 35 years, I think about the millions and millions of people across the globe who have had to leave their beloved homes due to war and natural disasters. Why them and not me? It seems so unfair.

2006-10-17T01:22:00.000-04:00

And now U.S. Homeland Security wants to turn beautiful Lake Michigan and her companion Great Lakes into live fire test zones for their armed Coast Guard vessels. Is nothing sacred?

2006-10-16T00:02:00.000-04:00

Anniversary flowers brighten a room just as a loving marriage brightens a life.

2006-10-15T02:38:00.000-04:00

Our lives are enriched by our differences, be they cultural, racial, religious, political or creative.

2006-10-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

We are each a strand in the worldwide web. Every act of violence that breaks a strand puts the entire web at risk of collapse. Why then would we ever choose to harm our neighbor, knowing that would also put ourselves and those we love in peril?

2006-10-13T00:27:00.000-04:00

The odd juxtaposition of an October snow shower while our lawn was being mowed made me wonder about the validity of my longheld assumptions. I guess anything is possible.

2006-10-12T00:23:00.000-04:00

If you are going to challenge the authority of a Superpower, does being an oil-rich nation protect you or put you in greater peril? How about being a nation with no oil reserves at all? What then?

2006-10-11T00:01:00.000-04:00

May I never take for granted the gift of living where autumn shows its splendor with such abandon.

2006-10-10T00:42:00.000-04:00

Rain mixed with snow is forecast for Thursday. So much for my Zen detachment!

2006-10-09T00:18:00.000-04:00

This morning fog looked beautiful, but what about the fog in the heads of our country's leaders? That looks chilling, not beautiful.

2006-10-08T00:01:00.000-04:00

Have you ever seen those kaleidoscopes made with mirrors, the ones that fracture reality in ways that force you to see things differently? Maybe that's what we need now.

2006-10-07T00:01:00.000-04:00

In photography, light is everything. In life too.

2006-10-06T00:01:00.000-04:00

On full moon nights even the most ordinary things are touched by magic. It gives me hope that peace is possible.

2006-10-05T00:01:00.000-04:00

Like the maple leaf, we are most brilliant when we let go of our need to belong.

2006-10-04T00:20:00.000-04:00

It's hard to feel too discouraged about the state of the world when you're doing all you can to change things.

2006-10-03T00:48:00.000-04:00

So how can you tell a decision of conscience from one of politics? The former elicits respect even if you disagree with it, whereas the latter doesn't sit well even if you agree.

2006-10-02T00:01:00.000-04:00

Wherever did we get the idea that beauty could be bought and sold?

2006-10-01T00:01:00.000-04:00

When you find a community of persons who share your passion for peace and justice, you know you've come home.

2006-09-30T00:01:00.000-04:00

Discouragement only comes when we think today's reality will never change. Ask the clouds about that!

2006-09-29T01:04:00.000-04:00

I understand these berries are poisonous to humans, rather like the Detainee Bills passed by the U.S. House and Senate this week. Only those bills are not only poisonous to human beings, but to habeas corpus, due process of law, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Geneva Conventions, and the international reputation of this country.

2006-09-28T00:24:00.000-04:00

Can you imagine how sweet it is to live for 40 years with a man who plays the piano by ear?

2006-09-27T00:18:00.000-04:00

We savor these crystal clear autumn days because we know they will not last. What would happen if we savored every moment of every day? Wouldn't our lives be touched by eternity?

2006-09-26T00:01:00.000-04:00

Autumn offers hints and whispers before it finally appears in all its splendor. Unfortunately, warmakers do the same. We should never be taken by surprise when their hints and whispers are replaced by the sound of bombs.

2006-09-25T00:04:00.000-04:00

When a country is led by men and women who have not experienced war either as a soldier or civilian, it becomes all too easy for them to believe their own propaganda.

2006-09-24T00:52:00.000-04:00

If world leaders would make music together, do you think there would be wars?

2006-09-23T00:58:00.000-04:00

Public opposition to America's war on Iraq is no longer a minority opinion. So when are we going to start mobilizing against Bush's obvious threats of war against Iran? What are we waiting for?