Thursday, February 19, 2009

Planting Seeds Is Like Peace

If you ask a child: What is peace? you will hear most commonly that peace is calmness, quiet, I don't know, not fighting, getting along, helping others, all very simple answers that make sense, doesn't it?
The next question is do you feel peacefull most of the time? Now, honesty, lets not forget, is the number one thing most children express without fear, apart from the peer pressure some experience.
The dialogue begins: issues relevant to their day to day life experiences are articulated and peacefull solutions begin to surface from that dialogue.
I will build houses for the homeless, I will feed the poor, I will be a doctor and help the sick, I will stop drugs, I will help my family, I will do my homework, I will be nice to others, I will stay in school. Pretty basic needs I am thinking.
As universal as our needs are our understanding of the "other" seems to be unexistent until we hear each others voice.
Children, I believe, are our great rivers and valleys, our mountains and plains.
They are the air that we breath and the tears that we shed.
Peace as they said is calmness and quiet, it is when you find that place within yourself where like a child you can feel safe.
In reaching out to children you will enrich the world for they are a sea of pearls.
Today's children are tomorrows' men and women they are not immune to war, to famine, to hatred and violence.
Lets remember it everytime we see a child and lets start to reach out and hear their voices.

1 comment:

  1. Great Solange, your experience with kids, beside to be powerful already by itself, florish full of poetry on your text. Easy to read, clean, truthful, not to long, and that for me is a very important element, because we need to be respectful with our readers, not force them to read to much, until they ask for more, also, on the same time you are practicing that quote that we love "less is more", and to compress ideas, to simplify language, to fight against our limitations, that is the way to go, please keep on writing, i can see you growing.
    Nacho.

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