I am still processing my experiences of my Pilgrimage of Peace this past winter. Here is a summary of where I am at in this endeavor.
It was a great blessing to be part of the “Pilgrimage of Peace: Walk in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi.” Two concepts, nonviolence and sustainability, were incarnated for me in our journey with present day followers of Gandhi.
Nonviolence was made real as our bus made its orderly way through the chaos of the roads in India. There were taxis, bikes, cars, cows, camels, motorcycles, trucks, buses, all making their way down the two lane roads, passing each other in a third lane (that did not exist) in the middle of the road. Beeping the horn was the way of communication and all was well if you had faith in the driver and did not look out the window.
Sustainability was visiting a “cow” farm where the main products of the cows was not milk or meat but cow dung. The dung was used for fertilizer, compost for worms, bio-fuel, insulation, medicine and even toothpaste. I was so impressed by the contributions of cows to sustainability — the wild cows, that just did what they wanted to do and the domestic cows on the farms — that I changed my web domain name to www.nonviolentcow.org from www.nonviolentworrm.org.
Prasad, the Gandhian leader of our pilgrimage, said in word and did in action nonviolence as part of everyday life. It was expressed in thoughts, words, actions, responses, work and play. He and others lived nonviolence in everyday life.
The food we experienced in India probably best represents the connection between sustainability and nonviolence. The food was freshly grown, organic, and prepared with a timely combination of spices and herbs that made it delicious as well as healthy.
So, in summary, if you take one dash of nonviolence and one of sustainability, and mix it in your everyday life, you have a delicious recipe for life.
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