Peace

How Do I Find Peace?

How Do I find Peace?
 
What do I Do?
Do I try to understand, do I ask for clarification? 
Do I do nothing and say nothing?
 
I prefer not to listen to vicious accusations.
I prefer not to listen to drunken babble.
I am unable to communicate with anyone whose brain is muddied with drugs or other addictions.
 
Do I do nothing? Do I say nothing?  Do I walk away?
 
My phone number is in the book, I say, call me anytime before 9:00 in the morning, we’ll make plans to get together. Every morning I wait. The call never comes.
 
Whatever I do I risk discrimination.
 
When I was young I was always there with a helping hand and a kind heart and a receptive ear.  All my life I paid forward.  I expected no guaranteed return, hoping that honesty and kindness would reap a good life and a loving family and a strong community. I was so often surprised and occasionally dismayed to discover that that is not how life works.
 
I am getting too old to fight anyone else’s battles or solve anyone else’s problems or even to sooth anyone’s imagined slights.
 
For my own peace of mind I turn around and walk away.

 

Harpin’ Without a Harper … With no Harp … The Rock Opera in Progress

2018 July 1

Some folks will be waving red and white flags and celebrating Canada Day. Here I am still waiting for that Irish Harper or maybe an Irish fiddler or piper to help build up interest in Irish sessions at the Doucet-Hennessy House in Bathurst, New Brunswick Canada. I’d invite the piano-player but our piano is sadly out of tune and there are no funds to tune it.

Don’t Forget You’re Irish Art exhibit opens to the public July 3. Drop by Tuesday to Saturday for a cup of tea and a chat at the historic Doucet-Hennessy House in Bathurst, New Brunswick. If you play Celtic or Acadian music or any sort of traditional folk music, we hope to have informal music sessions on Saturdays from 2-4. Bring along your acoustic instrument and join us. Music workshops are in the planning for September.

Maybe we local Artists have finally found our place on Chaleur Bay.

Keep checking in to catch updates on happenings. Hope to have new videos posted soon

Looking back:
2017
January 2
A new day has dawned.
Some might say
A time for change
What was it
That old man said
Be the change?
There is in memory
From long ago
An expression
A French saying
Mette la table
The spelling might
Be not quite right
But hey!
I set my table
The best I can
The best I am able
With good wishes
Peace and joy
Justice for all
As I serve
What I gather
From Mettacentre.org

………………….Horizon……………………………
Times are changing.
2016 is almost over.
The Harper knave
Never arrived

All those years
We waited
In precarity
While all across
This great country
Ad usque ad mare
As some might say
Bad spelling notwithstanding
Even those
Who never took a stand
For or against
We waited
For the Harper
Who never arrived.

Another year has gone by
Quickly so quickly
It is now December 2016

Much has happened
Still
We have no place

Artists and musicians
We struggle
In this place
Asking for little
Besides a safe place
To live and work.
For food they say
You must pay more
No one will tell us
Why that is.

Imagine
What this world would be
Without artists and musicians.
Yes, philosophers too
And others who care …
Nobody asking questions
That need to be asked.

A Study?
Yet another study?
While we languish
These last few years
While they study
Us to death.

Click to access StatusOfTheArtistResearchAndAnalyticalReport.pdf

Image

Yesterday

Looking back to what I did yesterday and the day before … And I think … An art project … Or a peace project … Can there ever really be a finishing point?
Don’t these things just go on and on … So how does one set a price? What if there is no buyer? Is it all just wasted time and effort?

What is art worth … What is peace worth?

Aside

Today is June 20th … Everyday is special

Today is June 20th … Everyday is special …

today is World Refugee Day

http://reliefweb.int/map_permission

What is a refugee? Why would anyone choose to be a refugee? Are we willing to help refugees? Why? What about people who choose not to be refugees? What about those who wish to remain in their own country? What about those people who wish to live in peace, raise their families, make a decent honest living? Is there a special day for them too?

 

On days when I feel that this world doesn’t offer me much comfort I always have my virtual home at http://www.u2.com/index/home/

As in most homes, nobody there is perfect, not even Bono … But refugees are always welcome.
Today as I paint my daily cup I will ponder what it is to be a refugee and not have a place to call home.

Since some of my own ancestors were Irish refugees from Ireland I think today’s cup might be orange and white and green.

Today is June 27th.
If I hold the Irish flag up to you what you will see, from your point of view, reading left to right, the way we usually read a flag, is green, white and orange. From my position behind the flag, I might see it as orange, white, green, the flag of the Ivory Coast, unless I read it from right to left. Most confusing but somewhat interesting, this was brought to my attention by a very smart young man.