There is a light within us as human beings, a bright light that shines out when we go beyond ourselves, when we give of ourselves into something greater than our own needs.

This light shines out of everyone of us when we are being of service to one another.
With this light comes a sense of certainty and this certainty is the foundation of faith, the essence of true knowingness.

The light transfers from person to person, it literally beams out from our hearts into each other and on my 7 year journey I've never felt it so strong, standing in the spaces once occupied by Dwight D. Eisenhower, Martin Luther King, the light seemed to grow within me like nothing I'd ever imagined.

It's a light of hope, a light of potentiality, a light of love.
And bright as I thought it was in the past, it now seems like it was a pilot light to the flame that has now burst forth.
I know this is beyond me and within me, I know because I've seen it reflected in all the meetings I've had here in the USA, more than just seen, I've felt it, like this is what we're here for, to unite in common purpose.

I leave now for the UK and with me I take a sense of gratitude and deep appreciation for the love, hospitality and American welcome I've experienced. This truly is like being born again in knowingness and faith for humanity.

Peace is down the road from here, I know with ALL my heart we can get there, I've stood on my mountain top and seen the view beyond, the journey is begun and all we have to do is stand together, join our compassionate lights together, add our voices to the song of faith, hope and love.

The journey to peace begins with the collective dismantling of the issue of world poverty and disparity, it begins with every step we take towards that goal. Brothers and sisters, this is our time to work together as never before towards our highest of dreams and common goals.

Thank you Janie, thank you America, thank you my friends over here, thank you everyone for shining your light onto our collective potential.

With all my love

Martin

On the shoulders of giants we move onwards and upwards towards our highest goals, this giant has the broadest of shoulders and laid the deepest of foundations for hope in this nation we call America.

I'm here as a guest, a visitor from distant shores and whilst my dreams have called me ever onwards, I am but one small voice amongst so very many.

At Glide Church in San Francisco yesterday I felt the call of a new religion, a new religion that embraces all religions, a new religion that spreads its arms out wide and says "welcome brother and sister to everlasting freedom". This new religion is up the highest mountain and the view from here is 365 x 24/7 x 365. This new religion IS the moral high ground and from whichever direction you climb the destination is the same.

I heard it once said that we see the world through the stained glass windows of our opinions, but when we remove the glass the truth is the same to all.
What removes the glass? hope and love, an open heart and an open mind, an indominatable will, a refusal to ever stop climbing, trust in yourself and faith in your highest of dreams.

Removing my own stained glass windows is a daily job, and whilst they evaporate in the light of human dignity and in the humble witnessing of compassion in action, they soon colour up again if I forget that I chose to climb!

Climbing the mountain towards an inclusive dream is challenging and rewarding, there's already a congrigation awaiting our arrival at the end of each day, great souls who have made their climbs, conqured their limiting beliefs and died in the persuit of peace and humanity.
Behind us cheering us on are the countless thousands of children who await the rewards of our endeavour.

Like the leaves on the trees have a structure to hold them together, soil, roots, trunk, branches, stems all supporting each perfect leaf and beneath the surface of each leaf there's a skeletal structure holding it together too.

We as human beings within a global society are also connected, attached, supported by, fed by, nourished by an interconnected structure that's in turn a part of everything.

Imagine if the leaves competed with the branches or the trunk made war with the roots?
Imagine a leaf without a tree, without it's nutrients of light, water and air?

As a global society that's discovering it's connections in every moment through the expansion of communications and travel, we are as a whole learning, our individual consciousness is expanding with the collective consciousness.

There's an unseen structure to society.
It's a-political, a-religious, it reaches beyond man made boundaries and runs deeper than tribal culture.
This structure is multidimensional, multifaceted and is printed like a blueprint within us all.
It carries with it a vibrational resonance, a harmonic note and a 'feeling' of alignment.

It's language is universal and beyond intellect.
It could even be called common sense or logic.

The structure I speak of is more of an agreement between people than a physical skeleton, it exists yet it cant be seen, it is new yet it has always been with us in potential, once found and shared by all it will see us through millennia.

How do I know it's there?
I physically 'experienced' it in 1999, since then I've been seeking it out, gathering evidence, listening to those who are aware of it, observing the patterns, learning from nature, focusing my attention towards its revelation.




A peaceful, harmonious, interconnected, interdependent society is within us and like the saying goes 'I'm unable to see the wood for the trees' our potential for a united world is obscured by the way we look. By changing the way we look at society the society we look at will change.

The emerging philosophy is not mine, it's already shared by millions of people, it's a path already being trodden by countless thousands, it's a reality in cultures and communities around the world, it's a knowingness within us all that is simply emerging.

For me it has a structure, all be it an invisible one ... it's the interconnected partnerships between public, private and voluntary sectors, it's the commonly shared themes of the 'triple bottom line' that point us towards social, economic and environmental benefits and it's the actions of individuals in our guise as employers or employees, as mothers or fathers, as teachers or students, as volunteers or recipients.

Until we all win = we all lose ... is for me a simple reminder of how the tree that is humanity will enjoy its very 'being' as we collectively transcend the concept of winning and losing.
The trancending is simply the ending of the trance, the illusion of our separation.

So, on this the 3rd day of 2008 may I wish you an inspiring New Year.
May your actions align with your dreams and your intentions align with your highest aspirations.

 

The clock on Ahmed's wall reads 6.10, the batteries ran out years ago, now at least it shows the right time twice a day every day, 365.

Ahmed's time is slowed down to a snails pace both physically and metaphorically, severely injured by a landmine many years ago he was confined to a wheel chair and dependence on care. In the other sense of the phrase, Ahmed's days are long, the clock may as well not exist for him, so he lives in a space of hope and expectation, far removed from the fast pace of our lives in the western world.

Ahmed lives in a centre for victims of war and land mines, in a remote outpost in the Sahara desert in Africa. To be with him is to feel time slow down, to experience a fraction of his life is to feel the earth's spin turn to slow motion upon its axis. Here it becomes possible to experience Eckhart Tolle's real meaning of the Power of Now.

Ahmed shares his temporary home with 130+ other victims of mans inhumanity. They too live on Ahmed time, a place where a morning feels like a long day, where tomorrow seems like a week away. And their time apart from the painful reality of disability through trauma, is to some degree spent in wonderment at the world around them, perhaps even a sense of disbelief at the way we have co-created a world where disparity and exclusion are norms.

Ahmed smiled like a Cheshire Cat when I returned the other month, there was that moment of brotherhood, of friendship and love in the eternal now that brought me to tears of appreciation and sadness at our pending separation. Such is the way of the world today, we meet one another upon our path but all life is in transience, our moments together fleeting, even if we're together for a life time, our three score years and ten are but moments in a very, very big picture.

Ahmed like billions of souls alive today lives in a space that is cut off from our attention, separate from our day to day experience but never the less a part of the one race we call humanity, the one species we call mankind. Like Ahmed feels hope, dreams of freedom or life experiences beyond the walls of his remote desert hospital centre, billions of souls are praying for someone to come, dreaming of a gift from God, hoping for a sign of light at the end of their tunnels.

You are the light they dream of, we are the lights, each of us with the ability to respond, the ability to show compassion and love and friendship  for our fellow life travellers. You are the person, the angel that could mean the world to someone, you don't have to save the world or protest against anything, all it takes is all that you are to shine through from within you.

Ahmed time is only ever now, every day forever and in this now we have 3 options, to watch what happens, to make something happen or to wonder what happened. Life is just events, events, events. By following your heart you will make something happen and that something will make a powerful difference in the world. Now as always we live in a space of cause and effect.

We're all parts in an interdependent machine, believing we're all independent, co-creating in a world of cause and effect ... dependence to ... money, things, lifestyles, cultural identities, boundaries, social security and, and, and.

And yet we are one people, sharing common human needs, sharing one available space in time, with one air, one water, one planet to sustain us.

So, even a child can see the need for fairness, equity, balance and no need whatsoever for the disparity we see evident today, but what tips the scales, what could possibly swing the way the world is ... towards the world can be?

For me the answer is simple and I hasten to add that this is the 'simple' found on the far side of complexity as referred to often by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

The simple I refer to is a choice too, it's not imposed, it's a learned behaviour that will createsocial and environmental benefits beyond our wildest dreams.

Add a penny to each thing you buy.
Imagine everyone doing the same?
(Everyone currently being about 1.7 billion of us.)
Imagine this choice sitting alongside everything as it currently exists?
Millions of businesses, organisations, charities, NGO's and not for profits currently working independently, competing, right now.

Millions of opportunites for peace and equity a second, slipping by us as we maintain what we know at the expense of what we are yet to learn.

Paradigm shifts appear as common sense once they've occurred. But prior to they may appear revolutionary, especially when one looks at the change from a close perspective.
Standing back the patterns emerge, the hidden becomes apparent, the impossible becomes possible.

Look with your head in an engine bay and you'll see engine rather than the journey ahead!
Look at the component parts of a clock and you'll see parts rather than the gift of time!





Like the component parts in a great time piece, humanity has the potential to learn to become interdependent, to work as one, to connect and grow as a child grows from cells to an entire being in the womb of its Mother.

Penny On, the name we give to a project to unite humanity in common caring is simply the way of love in action, but more than a campaign or an organisation and more like a new philosophy, it becomes something everyone can do towards a world that works for everyone.
However, like any change be it subtle or cataclysmic, it takes pioneers to walk in front, to show it's OK, it's safe, it works, our pioneers are young people.

I could write down the full workings of the clock and risk blinding you with science and serve not one life, or I could invite you to imagine with me the simplicity.
And then through our collective actions ... the world changes.

The new born baby is perfect, the parents love for the new born baby is perfect, you are perfect, the world is working perfectly ... however ... be your view Zen, Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Atheist, the shared reality is ... a childs life is the future of our race, a childs life is the only real legacy we leave, a childs life is all we revolve around.

Our communities, be they at the wealthy heart of America or the desert tents of a refugee camp, all revolve around the new born child. How that child then experiences the world is then 'dependent' upon the environment he or she is born into.

And regardless of the environment he or she is born with potential, world changing, community changing, family changing potential. With the universe behind him or her, that change will be for the good of all. On their own that change could equally be to the detriment of the whole.

Caring for the self is the norm so alongside this caring for all becomes the antidote to the issues we co-create.
If taught by default to care for all every single day is simply about teaching or inviting "consciousness" and this in turn allows the world to change by that fractional degree that Jesus described as "in a blink of an eye".

Stop all the clocks said the W H Orden poem and its words have the ability to leave its reader sad or mournful, such was the energy with which it was written. And the energy with which we live or participate in our lives can determine the outcomes we experience.

On that thought I just imagined 'stopping' in the context of us all being able to be still for a moment.

Imagine the world just still, all stopped, all calm, for a moment;

Stop all the cars, land all the planes, anchor the ships, stop all the machines.
Turn off the computers and all of the 'doing', lay down the guns and drop all your guards.

Stop all the thinking, stop all the tears, stop all the drinking, stop all the fear.
Look for a moment, look at your peers, look at their beauty, look at your life.

Hear all the silence when people stand still, hear all of nature, eternal and full.
Hear your heart beat, feel the life pulsing through you, through us all.

I have these thoughts in the day, when I'm lucid and sober, when my mind's cup is full of hearing, full from thinking, full from 'trying' and a quite still voice within invites the thought, so quiet its softness pierces the noise, stills the turmoil, quiets the buzz.

And I imagine scenarios replaying in new contexts, times where I've seen the best we are capable of being/doing/having when we're in harmony with a cause or a calling, times when I've wept in company from the simple beauty of a childs words, or a friends gift of giving.

Imagining in the cold light of day is dangerous, it changes everything, old walls come tumbling down, man made defenses seem futile, everything we do against each other no longer fits in the space of aspiration, of faith and trust of what can be.

Love in action is like water against the rocks, it erodes the hardness in us, it wears away the hardened heart and the castle walls of the closed mind, it frees the human consciousness like a bird from its cage, it simply represents life.

So media moguls I call to you from a mountain top ... do your worst now, for it is a lost cause. Advertising gurus, sell me a world for its value is beyond your site just now. Politicians spin me your greatest lies for I am now immune. Men of war send in your greatest arms for soon they will be dust.

Love in action is all powerful, it flows amongst the peoples of the world, it flows amongst the poorest homes and amidst the most excluded communities. Love in action is our highest potential, it sees the unfolding of us, the becoming of us, the transition from cowardice to bravery, from fear to triumph, the evolution of boys to men.

Stop everything and imagine with me, just for a moment.
If this unstoppable river is within you, is it not in us all?
If this desire for peace is within you, is not in us all?
If this hope for our childrens children
If this search for meaning
If this call from your heart
If this knowing you feel
Is this not in us all?

Dare with me, dare to imagine, dare to envision, to believe, to follow your thirst for truth.
And I'll be at your side through the darkest of days, through the worst any man can do, beyond the lowest valleys and highest peaks, I'll be at your side, as we walk in the footsteps of the giants that strode before us, the giants that saw peace as our highest potential through love in action.

:-)

And if you're a scientist, or a realist, or sceptic or just someone who prefers to cut to the chase, here's the 'common sense' from Wayne W Dyer;

There's a positive effect of kindness upon the immune system and on the the increased production of serotonin in the brain has been proven in research studies. Serotonin is a naturally occurring substance in the body that makes us feel more comfortable, peaceful and even blissful. Research has shown that a simple act of kindness directed towards another improves the functioning of the immune system and stimulates the production of serotonin in both the recipient of the kindness and the person extending the kindness. Even more amazing is that persons observing the act of kindness have similar beneficial results.

 

When I set off on my experiential mission to get to the heart of the issue of poverty little did I know how busy the road was, how many souls have ventured in search of meaning, answers and practical solutions.

When the Ethopia crisis hit our TV screens in the mid 1980's and Live Aid was launched, one lady amongst many began to dig beneath the surface to find the root cause of the issue. This lady, Julia Hausermann, discovered the answers lay in all of us, in our ability to respond, our ability to recognise our commonality. Julia, a tireless force in the field of development worked behind the scenes to change global policy, to advance governments and to cut through bureaucracy and into potentiality.

Here are the 7 principles that have evolved out of her devotion to the cause, 7 principles that the human 'being' within us will align with ...
 

Rights and Humanity's Principles of Responsibility

We all share the responsibility to:

Recognise and respect our common humanity

• comprehend that all is interconnected and that individual action affects others
• avoid harm to others
• treat everyone with humanity and as we ourselves would wish to be treated

Respect human dignity

• treat everyone with respect for their human dignity, privacy and autonomy
• appreciate the richness of diversity and the dignity of difference
• recognise and respect the rights of others to have and express opinions and practices different from our own

Revere life

• respect human life and everyone's right to a standard of living adequate for life, health and wellbeing
• recognise the impact of our actions and inactions on others and on their livelihoods
• respect nature, protect our shared environment and avoid the waste of scarce resources

Respect and promote the human rights of everyone, everywhere

• recognise, promote and respect the human rights of everyone, everywhere in the world
• avoid any prejudice and respect the equality of everyone irrespective of any potentially divisive barrier such as race, sex, religion or ideology
• strive for economic, social, political and cultural justice within the family, the community and within and between states

Think and behave with compassion

• empathise with others in the wish that they might be free of suffering
• share with others and act to support and include those living in distress, poverty and social isolation
• work in cooperation with others to prevent and alleviate human suffering and develop to the full our potential for service to others

Act with integrity

• act with integrity in all matters and speak and behave with honesty
• inform ourselves of, and take responsibility for, the impact on others of our actions and inactions
• strive to base our decisions on accurate facts and reasoned analysis of the effects of the decision, seeking always to avoid harm and promote good

Make peace

• make peace with ourselves and with others
• build bridges of understanding
• strive for justice and for peaceful resolution of conflicts in the home, at work, in the community and in the world.

more here

Julia's work represents not only the legal argument at a global governmental level but also the practical framework for delivery of the human rights approach to development, a subject that Julia literally 'wrote the book' on and the content of which was adopted by the worlds NGO community after its launch into the UN's development sector.

Thank you Julia for all you do.

I began to think about the uniqueness of us about 8 years ago, seeing through fresh eyes that the diversity we enjoy in fact makes us all alike. We all have unique finger prints which makes us in truth ... all the same. We all share basic human needs, this too makes us all the same.

Looking at the world from this perspective, one of total inclusion, we are truly all one race with 6.5 billion diverse perspectives and as many individual dreams, goals and aspirations.

To approach life with an inclusive perspective means that for me there can be no exclusion, no prejudice, no us and them, only us. Just as in the world we are rapidly discovering that there is no 'away' in reference to throwing our rubbish away, it simply ends up in someone elses back yard.

For a moment let's consider there is no enemy, there is no terrorism, there is no external threat, there is only us, our potentially limited beliefs and a world that is in a constant state of cause and effect.

In this world that exists in a state of constant change anything is possible, peace is possible, environmental sustainability is possible, the end of poverty is possible ... everything we practically desire that aligns with our core humanity is possible ... BUT only when we align ourselves in action towards these shared goals.

Ask every child in the world what she or he wants for their future and their answer will be to a degree governed by their environmental experience of life thus far. For the majority a roof and clean water may be their request, for the minority their aspirations will be governed by their social norms and may involve careers, posessions, wealth and the like.

And, just as there is no longer an 'away' it is also apparent that in truth there is no 'them', only us, born into a diverse world of diverse riches and a currently un-balanced model for total inclusion.

So, how do we step towards an inclusive world that works for us all?
This for me is not a question for scientists, politicians, futurists or even the worlds religious leaders. This for me is a question to ask of the worlds children.

Yes, maths, science, history et al are important, AND ... The word "education" derives from the Latin educare, meaning "to nourish" or "to raise".
It also means  'to draw out', facilitating realisation of potential and latent talent.

To draw out of every child their individual understanding and thoughts around the question of a world that works for everyone is to nourish and to raise a new aspiration for our shared future.

Having realised that not only Every Child Matters but in fact that every life matters, my hopes are strengthened by our diversity, by the very nature of our differences and it is through this solid reality (the fact that we are all different) that our inclusive, sustainable future survival will emerge.

"And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth"

Imagine

They say that where there's water, there's life. In this case there's water and life for sure but can you imagine for a moment having to draw water from this tank?
Can you imagine this being your water ration for 2 weeks?

In the refugee camp they're pretty organised, water comes by truck every 2 weeks and delivers to each of 5 desert camps sufficient water to ensure 170,000 people survive the harsh desert heat.

As a westener my body is comparatively weak, intollerent of their dirty water, in fact even fruit washed in the water is enough to turn a white man green or have him (or her) rushing for the closest out-house with the runs or to be sick.

We took bottled water, hundreds of bottles 17p each from ASDA, each one had to be marked with our names to avoid sharing any infections or bugs we may have. And drink we did, by the litre, the desert heat drying us out so fast.

Our empties we saved and refilled in Bechar from an outside tap, the water here still no good for us but a positive luxury for our refugee hosts! As we filled our old bottles I was reminded by the puddle in the litter infested ground around the outside tap ... people further down into Africa, in Sout America, in India ... fight over less, killing each other for the right to drink from a dirty puddle.

It was one of numerous remiders of just how lucky we are to have access to clean water.




To have access to clean water is a human right.
That right is currently determined by where a child is born.
And whilst we may be able to quantify the wealth of men and nations, we still have a duty to our fellow humanity, a duty of care that goes beyond our current levels of social consciousness and into a new paradigm that awaits us all.

In this new paradigm the right to water wont have to be contested, fought for or advertised by NGO's and Charities until they are blue in the face.
In this new paradigm Every Child Matters is a global policy enforced by community rather than governments.
In this new paradigm there is enough of everything.

Nothing needs to change in the outside world, the only change is within us and within us right now there are deserts, poverty, famine, war and environmental destruction.
Within us ALL will be peace, sufficiency, interdependence, harmony, acceptance, trust.
All that changes is the way in which we see.