14May2009
From PeaceFires
NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, 26, 2009 …….I have class in the Summer 1 session ALL DAY on Monday and Wednesday (if Thursday is better let me know).
TIME: 11:30 – 1:30 pm
PLACE: TBA by Yasmine
It was quite an amazing week filled with some very meaningful events. So here is the reeeeest of the story (actually I feel we are just getting started), but thank you Paul Harvey! (Please make sure you read the entire e-mail.)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 – six of the committee members were able to go on a road trip to visit the birth place of Miracle the White Buffalo, in Janesville, Wisconsin. Our one hour visit with Dennis Dillard, turn into a four and a half hour experience. Dennis shared many meaningful and insightful things about Miracle and really seemed to embrace our work and the 09-09-09 gathering. On the way home we stopped at the Rockford Peace Plaza and I feel the committee member who had not visited this place before were really, really impressed with what Rockford created, a city with great diversity, to unify their people through flags, peace poles and quotes.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
11:00 am – Bean Feasa na hEireann Margaret Connolly, of Ireland, met with President Hahs for an hour and discussed many things including the central and vital link that Northeastern has to the 09-09-09 gathering. Margaret will be traveling with several people from Ireland to put the coals from her Fire into our Fire before it is lit at dawn.
NOON – Margaret sits with Barb Sherry, Director of the FYE program during lunch and Margaret discovers the purpose of the FYE program. She really connects to Barb. Linda Sherry, who is with Margaret, discovers her family and the family of Barb Sherry are from the same county in Ireland. Nice coincidence.
1:30 – 3:30 pm – Peace Connection Committee Meeting – Margaret and Linda Sherry spent two hours meeting with the committee and Margaret finally explained the depth of the project we are involved in with the 09-09-09 gathering. Margaret shared this is a once on a 1000 year moment in history. This is the only time in our lifetime we will have such an opportunity to help the world and impact the future for the next 19 generations.
UNITED NATIONS – Margaret helped with the wording of the OPEN SPACE FORMAT invitation so it would make complete sense to the 2000 indigenous elders she will be reading it to at the United Nations General Session on Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Margaret stressed, “It is about the lighting of the Fire and it traveling the world for 24 hours.” It felt like a very focused and galvanizing meeting.
4:00 – Margaret speaks with the FYE instructors to end their 3-day training. She shares how important it is to connect with students and how valuable their work at Northeastern is for all the students.
7:00 pm – Margaret has been sick all day, but has said nothing. In her traditions she cannot light a Sacred Fire when she is not balanced. Linda Sherry, her helper, is invited to light the Fire. Margaret shares a little bit but needs to leave to go back to the hotel. She is weakening as time goes by in the day. We have a talking circle with the 15 people who showed up to the Fire and it was a very, very meaningful circle. Hugh Bannon shared with us the secret to a sound sleep he can teach us at the next meeting
Friday, May 15, 2009 – Margaret needs to go to the doctor to get some help, and stays in bed all day before she leaves for the United Nations tomorrow. She gets some medication, from the doctor, but Hugh Bannon comes to the rescue and brings her some natural healing medicines from the herbal vitamin store. Margaret rests all day and is 50% better by the morning.
Saturday, May 16, 2009 – I pick Margaret up at 10:00 am for her trip to O’hare Airport. We stop in my back yard at the 800 lb. jade water stone. I present her with some gifts of cedar oil and other things. At the airport she says once again, “You need to get a log that will be recognized after the 09-09-09 gathering.
Well…….the entire process of the logo took place in under five minutes, in the van, while parked at the airport. She could barely walk, so we sat in the van and sketched it on paper plates. When it was done she just said, “Every elder now who sees this symbol in the world will understand this is sacred event.”
I have the paper plates and will show you at the next meeting. The progression from scribbles, to circles, to the balanced finished product was over in a few minutes. Margaret kept saying, “It has to have 9 circles. It has to have 9 circles.” Well it has 9 circles, pyramids, the sign of the Holy Grail, the infinity symbol, and more.
NOTE: The events of how this logo came about are very, very similar to how the events in planning the 09-09-09 gathering occurred after the 2008 TEAM Conference. It was on the 10 minute ride to O’Hare Airport with Margaret, and by the time I was hugging her good bye the “rough draft” for 09-09-09 was already planned out.
Monday, May 17, 2009 – Diana Anastazia premiers her US project at the Starbucks in the Streets of Woodfield. It is a wonderful event and people from many professional organizations stopped by to talk and see what the project involved. Geoffrey Gephart, the chief development and Program Officer for USO Illinois, was in attendance and fully supportive of this project. A friend of Diana’s was there who is a computer artist. She looked at the idea for the logo for our 09-09-09 gathering and said, “I can do this. I will get it to you very soon!”
LOGO – I hope to have the draft of the logo to just show at the next meeting. I AM NOT ATTACHED TO IT. I AM ONLY BRINGING IT TO SHARE.
TUESDAY, May 19, 2009 - 7:25 PM – HERE IS THE EXCLAMATION POINT FOR THE WEEK:
As I was typing the last line before I send this to you my cell phone rings in my office. My cell phone does not usually work in my office.
“Hello, Dan, this is Margaret. I wanted to report to you what happened today at the Untied Nations. We read all the material this afternoon about Northeastern and the
09-09-09 gathering. We were able to speak out of order with permission of the council chairperson. We were not supposed to speak until tomorrow. We read the invitation from Michael for the Open Space and the letter from Northeastern to the delegates. I could feel them all listening. All the materials were translated and copied into 14 languages today. There will be more done tomorrow. Please tell the committee my visit to Northeastern was VITAL before we came here. I cannot stress that enough. I will let you know how things go the rest of the week. Blessings.”
So it was a great week of connecting and preparation, and a filly won the Preakness.
