Session 1

PEACE PRACTITIONER WORKSHOP AND DISCUSSION GROUP

[TOC] This is Session 1 [Session 2]

Session 1 - Inner Peace

Mary Howitt (1804-1888)

"Yes, in the poor man's garden grow
Far more than herbs and flowers—
Kind thoughts, contentment, peace of mind,
And joy for weary hours."
The poor Man's Garden.

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Greetings

Hello! Thank you for joining our peaceful workshop!

We hope you will get to know each person in the workshop because each one was chosen carefully and recommended for this highly innovative and original program. Enjoy this experience and make your recommendations for improvements.

Keep in mind that at the end of the workshop we will ask you for your opinions and recommendations so we can make the next generation of workshops more interesting and perhaps even life changing events. You are pioneers. I know there are college courses designed for professionals like psychologists, clergy, government workers. We are ordinary citizens, real people with real concerns about the disasters and violence in the world and in our families and communities. We want to know what in the world to do about things that seem beyond our reach.

Most of you did not have time to write a paragraph or a page about who you are and why you thought you might appreciate participating in our peace studies workshop.

Please post something about yourself today.

Read about your new friends in this very special fellowship. This is the first step to help us work together in the little time we have to explore peace over the next three weeks.

I will start by inviting our PeaceClinic Chapter Directors to speak up about why you are working with this organization. I have a great love and appreciation for each person on our executive team. We started out with just Chloe. Then came Kerry Museus, Wendy Watters, Susan Moore, and Prof. Fani B. Das. Cindy Davis and Linda Muslin live near me and often offer suggestions and have provided much needed assistance when I my late husband, Rich Freeland, and I were drowning financially last Spring. The both helped me shop and get around when I injured my knee a month ago. Thanks, guys.

About Chloe

I was in the middle of a giant book writing project in the Spring of 2001 when our nation was shocked by the Oklahoma City bombings, the Colorado school shootings, and the similar school shootings in the San Diego area. I was still upset by the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in Los Angeles. The realization that domestic violence was a huge concern all over the world was made clear by the stories and speeches by Denise Brown. We've seen a lot more violence since then. Who knew we would be launching a couple of wars in the Middle East. Now we have global warming and talk of UFOs.

I thought of all the skills I had picked up over my careers in communications and decided the best way to reach the most people would by the Internet. In the Fall of 2001 I opened the first PeaceClinic website. I reached out to other peace organizations. I remembered my own grandmother, Hazel Lee Cardwell, who was a social worker and the founder of two alcoholic recovery centers in Phoenix, Arizona. I studied the life and works of my first husband, Dr. Arthur Louis Joquel, II. He taught me all about book publishing, world peace organizations, and how to do research.

I have suffered the loss of friends and relatives who died too young. I searched everywhere for inner peace, serenity, and freedom. I studied about all of the world religions, peace organizations, cultural anthropology and psychology. I think of myself as a cultural creative and a secular humanist. I had to do something.

I have created these options for self understanding, global peace, and creative thinking.

The PeaceClinic
community forums, PeaceNet Newsletter book projects,
news, information and the Peace Practitioners Workshops

Cultural Creatives Society
Interesting contributions by some great minds.

Creative Coaching Inst.
Life Empowerment Coaching, Domestic Violence Seminars, Free anti-domestic violence workshops.

Please visit these sites and become familiar with the resources there. This is all for your benefit. Please tell others about the information and solutions you find at the PeaceClinic and other sites we may publish.

About You

I would love to learn from each of you who have come to this Internet workshop. I know I will learn much more from you than you will from me during our three weeks together. You will have earned a certificate of completion. We hope it will be respected and appreciated in your world. Right now there are only about 50,000 peace workers in the world. There will be peace practitioners all over the world. Some will be volunteers, work for nonprofits, or become college and governmental workers in conflict resolution. It is up to us.

Inner Peace

Here are some of the things I would like to hear from you.

o What is it in your life that disturbs your peace?

o What brings you the most peace or comfort?

o What does the world need now?

We are about to launch you into an exploration of the meaning of peace.

Inner peace: Love of self and self knowledge

Domestic peace: Family, community, school, work

World peace: Global, people like us in other countries

Hints for today: Pay It Forward. Read the book or rent the video.

This workshop will be successful to the degree that each of us in this tiny boat get to know each other and work together to understand the problems of this planet, this biosphere. You have my highest respect because you cared enough to think about peace. Thank you for attending and most of all for sharing. You may or may not actually teach classes but you can become an example to others in your everyday lives. I salute you.

~ Chloe Joquel Freeland, Founder and Director, The PeaceClinic

[TOC] This is Session 1 [Session 2]