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This September, several Ojai organizations representing more than 30 retreat centers, spiritual and religious groups, peace organizations, and yoga practices, invite the community to acknowledge our Oneness in our diversity. We will be joining others around the world to participate in three international celebrations: the Eleven Days of Global Unity, the United Nations’ International Peace Day and a Season for Interfaith Celebration. All of these efforts are focused on building a culture of universal respect and honoring our beautiful human diversity including race, gender, age, spiritual practice, lifestyle, and nationality. Our community is invited to go beyond the mental exercise of Peace as merely a concept, and actually take steps to live together in Peace.

The Eleven Days of Global Unity is an opportunity for individuals and groups to gather in various expressions of group endeavor and collaboration between September 11th and September 21st. Tuesday, September 11th is the anniversary of both Gandhi’s first peace march in 1906 and 9/11, a U.S. national crisis in 2001. Churches, youth groups, governments and civic organizations can all plan events to help us remember how to work with our neighbors and move through strife and separateness. (www.wetheworld.org/11days)

Friday, September 21st is the U.N.’s International Day of Peace. All 191 member countries of the United Nations agreed through resolution 55/282 to honor September 21st as a Global Ceasefire and a day of peace and nonviolence. “It is an invitation to all nations and people to honor a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the day. For the past 24 years, International Day of Peace has been a catalyzing opportunity for individuals and nations to unite in our shared yearning for a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.” (www.internationaldayofpeace.org)

Simultaneously, the Season for Interfaith Celebration will be honored globally by many religious and spiritual groups. This time period has significance for diverse cultures, encompassing the Muslim holy period of Ramadan, the Jewish “days of awe” between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and the Fall Equinox, important to Native Americans and other indigenous spiritual traditions. It is an opportunity for all of us to learn about each other’s faith and practice. It is our chance to recognize the core truth that we all share.

We are well on the way to creating a culture of peace and cooperation in the Ojai Valley. Indeed, new coalitions are springing up everywhere. For instance:

 The Executive Director’s Roundtable members are the leaders of our Ojai non-profits working together to succeed individually and as a group.

The Green Coalition is working with the Ojai Valley-Wide Discussion Group to implement the environmental goals of the city.

The Safe Coalition, whose partners include the School District, the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation and the Sheriff’s office, is helping to keep Ojai streets safe for our kids.

The Retreats of Ojai have come together in cooperation to hold space for guests to explore their deeper consciousness and rediscover the natural rhythm with our environment.

The Ojai Interfaith Alliance is inviting all religious and spiritual organizations in Ojai to enter into dialogue and explore our essential Oneness and divinity.

We are learning that we are interdependent, and that to really live and flourish as a community, we are called to reach out to each other – elders and youth, wealthy and struggling, Hispanic and white, rancher and artist, Christian and Sufi, vegetarian and meat eater, SUV driver and cyclist. This is an invitation to release our judgments, to see that we are more the same than we are different, to embrace the beauty of diversity and the heart of compassion. As we, the community of the Ojai Valley, choose to open our hearts to this activity of living together in love, we are creating a culture of peace and setting a pattern for all of humanity.



updated  Monday, 19 Aug 2007

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