Co-Creating Peace – Narrating Our Stories With Active Hope
‘Given the fact that two thirds of Man’s brain is dormant it never ceases to amaze me how little he uses the one third which is active. If Man pushed just a little harder what miracles there might be!’ Albert Einstein, 1932
We co-create our realities with every word, action, idea, with our ways of understanding, our connections and conflicts. Stories; histories, cultural connections are central to our identity, our agency, our capacity to flourish, our sense of belonging. Yet stories can be used to divide too and the forgotten connections between our stories, our faiths, our understandings can be said to be the most dangerous. A story written is only part of the story. Words, silence, music, dance, colour, even taste and scent can combine to tell a story, which can reconnect us to one another, to the environment upon which we depend and most deeply with ourselves and our source. A story woven by many voices, held in safe space, can share unspoken, even unspeakable truths. It can open us to envision futures our fears and conditioning tell us are impossible, or explore worst fears and memories from a place of support. I have seen it unleash powers within the human heart, mind and soul. For me it is in being more ourselves and in connecting with life’s cycles that we see more life and encourage others to do the same. Whatever you choose to do, may you find joy and love within it.
The story can help provide insights into, even transcend aspects of interfaith conflicts within the connected roots and entwined branches. In almost all creeds and religions if you look closely enough and disregard that which seeks to lessen and control us we see the power of thought, action, envisioning. Many have translated writings and scriptures understanding that we as humans were moulded in the image of a divine oneness, as in part meaning of this is that we are imbued with the image-creating power of a divine whole. Within our imagination lies the power to create; to manifest and change our realities. Descartes said ‘I envision therefore I am.’ It is possible we are each a part of the universe envisioning itself. Inner conflict and outer conflict mirror and magnify one another. We are all born into the heritage of conflict. For those trapped in the hot points of the most complex, evolving and tenacious conflicts their journey is one of the greatest bravery. What can i say to them when my own experiences of war has been less relentless and for the most part non-life threatening? All i can say is ‘please tell me your stories’. Whenever i do this i am often overwhelmed by the stories of hope, love, bravery and connection as well as those of loss, despair, hatred. In the circle, when these stories are interwoven new and renewed stories of healing are created, not by me, but by the circle.
These are archetypal tools for human flourishing, capacity building, peace-building and keeping. Do not leave the story-weaving in the limitations of the war songs. Working towards thinking, living and being in greater awareness, connection, peace, you may say closer to divinity or to your higher humanity, requires, in my eyes, creativity of thought and an ability to listen to life; it asks for us to be able think outside accepted ideas where it is appropriate, even vital so to do. It also asks that we find our ways of walking the path towards oneness and reminds us all beings are interconnected. No one can be truly free from want and fear until all are thus we free ourselves and enable others. Eco-systems and global currencies, hearts and imaginations are all connected. Living with awareness comes with a responsibility to see how all beings, lives and energies flow in and out of each other and how we are all part of a big ‘oneness’ with many currents and tides. To story-weave is to recognise and celebrate change; to be part of it; to be navigators of the tides and a part of the tides themselves. This is of course my own opinion and I welcome others.
To me story-weaving is about living with awareness; with roots and branches, creativity, connection, intent, focus and joy; about sending out and receiving healing and about actively visualising and working towards a future and inviting others to work on that plan. We speak and envision what we may help come to pass. We may receive and share from others, past and present through an eye and a voice within our hearts. We may see them written in flame, hear them in wind, reflected in water. They may nourish us like fruits from the earth. We are all linked and our actions, words, dreams and ways of seeing have a ripple affect. Just as when we give out smiles we welcome others to share being happy and the opposite can happen when we trade harsh words, I see that joy given to one can lift many, pain given to one can hurt many. For this reason I try to exercise my will through love, to protect others’ right to live and be within love and to take the path of no or least harm. I am further researching multi-sensory story-weaving within conflict resolution, capacity building, education, peace-enabling and sustainability research. Please share your stories, ideas, inspirations and insights with me. Invitations for collaboration or requests for facilitation input on projects welcome.
Enjoy narrating your stories,
Antonia
Tender Writing Advice
Becoming a tender writing expert
Tendering experts are always on time with the documents that they produce. The very best professionals spend lots of time and resources on developing their skills. Becoming a really good tender writer requires complete and total dedication to your profession. There is no point in going into something and not giving it one hundred per cent. I would probably recommend that you take every course that is available to you as well as reading around the subjecting and reading about the subject. Studying it vitally important but theory alone isn’t going to get you very far. Putting what you can into practice in real world situations is what is going to help you to gain experience in your field. Don’t ever stop learning or you’ll actually start to lose sight on your goals. You must maintain a sound perspective on what you are trying to achieve. Being an expert in your chosen field is what will help to set you apart from the rest. I would always recommend being a leader rather than a follower.
Becoming a tender writing expert is about learning from others as well as taking the initiative to try new things how yourself. Have a solid foundation of learning and gain experience but also innovate, think outside of the box and experience. This is how you will break on through to the other side and become a real expert.
Gaining experience as a tender writer
Tendering writing is a difficult professional to get right. You will have clients who need results in order to justify their expenditure. If you don’t perform then they’ll choose someone else. I don’t think that there’s a better way of learning how to write effective tenders than the learn the theory and then apply what you’ve learned. If you don’t practice what you preach then you’ll never really know if what you’ve been taught really. Theory must be put into practice or you’ll get nowhere.
Tender writing skills – how to develop them
Developing the right skills will require you to work very hard indeed. I like to think to gaining experience is very much about getting stuck into what you are doing. Having a plan and then executing the individual task that must be completed in order to get ahead. If you fail then there is only yourself to blame. Some will say that it’s bad luck. But luck doesn’t exist in my opinion. There is no such thing as missing opportunities because you weren’t in the right place at the right time. Successful people make sure that they are in the right place at the right time in order to seize opportunities that they so rightfully deserve.
