Within our communities we all try to do our best to create a healthier environment.  We drive less or take our bikes. We recycle our waste.  I even heard on the news tonight that some people are becoming 'green' parents by using cloth instead of paper diapers!

And then there is the dilemma of people killing people in wars overseas as well as on our city streets.  We become active in peace movements and social action groups.

Energetically, peace comes from within...  When we undergo healing of our physical and energetic bodies, we gradually come to a place of introspection, perhaps experience such deep awareness that we realize peace within only comes from letting go of anything that is not peaceful - -

The power of community lies in the understanding that, like these beautiful tree roots, we are all interconnected.  In fact, the deeper we go in community, the more we merge into a group consciousness.

Meeting together in prayer or problem solving  groups to develop this 'deep community', we bring that peace from within to a circle of others doing the same.  By learning to accept the diversity among the group, indeed  embrace the differing points of view, we realize we all bring a different  piece of the same puzzle -- a puzzle we need each other to solve. This is not unlike the Native American Medicine Wheel concept.   And notice, this is not anything like 'tolerating' differences, it is an honoring that allows us to live in peace and use all possible viewpoints to make wise decisions.

At Alternative Therapy Center of Madison, we meet in a small meditation group around the sacred geometry of the Emissary Wheel.  After choosing our topic of discussion, we quietly go into our hearts and speak what comes to us into the circle. (Kind of like 'brainstorming', but this is 'heartstorming'!) Many times insights and solutions come that one of us alone would never have arrived at...