Cheers!

Wind in the sails and moving forward!

Thank you to those of you who wrote about 'becalmed' experiences. It is an uncomfortable state for a sailor, but provides valuable time for reflection.

It is an interesting experience for a practitioner, working with people in conflict for so many years, to now be a part of the academic community who use language like "problematizing the hegemonic discourse of modernity".
I must confess that when someone first said I was pragmatic, I wanted to deny it, not totally sure of what was meant. It can feel a bit like the discomfort of having a leg on either side of a fence as I live each day between the practitioners and academic worlds. Perhaps better than the fence is the bridge, allowing two way traffic and communication.

As I write this I am also given the opportunity of bridging communities. My CKUA radio station plays online and it is 3 am in Alberta. I am emailing to a colleague in Sri Lanka who is working with children in a peer mediation program I am involved with, and I am messangering with a colleague and friend in Romania. We are both celebrating our friend Romeo Crow Chief (who was in Romania with me) who has had a big birthday.

It is November 11th and so the white and red poppies show a rememberance of those who gave their lives, both in war and work toward peace. I wish to honour all those who gave their lives...as I strive for a world where differences are resolved without war.

I will honour those who died in human violence, and I also think of the loss of life daily due to malnutrition and starvation. Whether driving across the Canadian praires and seeing the reaches of wheat and soybean fields, or going from Colombo to Batti and seeing the rice fields; I am struck with the world's capasity to feed all living beings.

Current reading:

John Paul Lederach (2005) The Moral Imagination
Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2001) Decolonizing Methodologies
Jack Mezirow(1991) Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning
James Frey(2003) a million little pieces

What are you reading?
What are you reflecting on?

I look forward to hearing from you.

m.m.mcmanus@bradford.ac.uk
or marthamcmanus@hotmail.com

Take Care,

Martha

If you are an able letter writer, please email me and i will forward you the details as human rights organizations persist in demands that the rape of a 14 year old Sri Lankan girl is delt with in the courts.

Long time away

Can you love or respect the people and assist their/our inquiry without imposition of your will
Can you intervene in the most vital matters and yield to events taking their course
Can you attain deep knowing and know you do not understand
Conceive, give birth and nourish without retaining ownership
Trust action without knowing outcome
Guide by being guided
Exercise stewardship without control…

(Interpretation of words attributed to Lao Tzu, c 550bc)


I have been remiss on writing my blog for a while now. I apologize for that. I will update things now and be a bit more regular in monthly contributions (or even more frequent writing.)

These past few months I have been in Canada, USA, Spain, and UK, and I have had the opportunity to work with city of Calgary officers and staff, Blackfoot mediators, and some family mediation in my work.

I am now here at the University of Bradford enrolled in a direct PhD program. Yesterday a friend gave me a word for how I feel, becalmed. This is a nautical term for sailing ships with no wind at sea.

Perhaps becalmed is the right time for mending nets and such, yet I am challenged by the stillness. I race up the pole to the crows nest looking for wind, or search the innards of the ship for paddle, motor, engine room…relaxing into the stillness is the challenge.

Sure, meditation, walking, reading, good food and good sleep all help; and so I am doing better than only keeping my head above water. I write about this because those of you who know me know me to be a raging optimist. This sadness, aloneness and becalming in new to me. What is interesting as I have shared this with others is how many others are feeling the same thing. How are you feeling, dear blog reader?

When a ship is going down, rats leave it (I do not know if this is true but in keeping with nautical metaphors at least!) and as well, all the animals seemed to feel the coming tsunami (and earth’s crust shifting) and responded by heading in land. Perhaps some humans also feel the earth’s shifts as mother Earth is going through hard times? (Hey, I am the year of the rat so perhaps that helps?)

The Earth is erupting around and whether it is the feeling of pain when Baghdad was bombed, or Earth’s internal turmoil; like Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars who feels the destruction of Alderan (planet), I feel it.

I have some questions for fellow peace builders about our work, (education vs. training) (theory and practice), and will share more of my research with you in the future. For now?

Becalmed,

Martha