Words for World Peace October 2011 (personal reflections)

As an Interfaith Minister I respect the inner truth that we believe and the choices we make regarding life, death, God, afterlife and how and why we live our lives in a particular way. In short I respect whatever works for you.

The conversations I have as a minster are about love and peace; and the reasons why we can talk about such words, but not see much of either in everyday life.

This year I decided that enough was enough and it was time to take some personal action towards world peace. Hence the trek to Everest base camp, armed with 5 flags and over 50 personal quotes written by ordinary people, wanting ordinary peace. I left on Friday 28 October planning to make the Mount Everest Base Camp on or around 9 November 2011 at approximately 2pm Nepal time.

My hope in doing this? That my voice would act as a peaceful harmonic and spread the words far and wide. The energy and power of the words could mean that one less bullet was fired from a gun, one less fist struck a child, one less cruel word abused a vulnerable person. I hoped that at least these three small actions would occur on a planet of 7 billion people. Not too much to ask was it?

The trip had its difficulties early on. Lukla Airport was fogbound. No flight to Lukla, no trip to Everest. So after 3 days of waiting for a flight I transferred to another trek to the Annapurna mountain range. A five day trek to the ABC (Annapurna Base Camp) at 4120 metres above sea level (which is about 13,000 feet). Some altitude sickness, a rotten cold and insomnia did not detract from the beauty of the surroundings and the feelings of humility and thanks to the Nepalese people who were so kind and helpful.

I made the ABC on 9th November and at 2.30pm Nepal time, burnt incense as an offering to the mountains, cleansed the flags in local water (in accordance with local custom), strung the peace flag (see picture above) and recited some of the Words for World Peace into the back up camera (which I had slept with the night before to keep the batteries warm and prevent the lens jamming). Please don't ask what happened to the primary camera. So I ended up with some photos and a little video footage of the splendid moment which can be viewed here.

The following morning at 6.15am as the sun rose over Annapurna South I read the remaining words in a temperature of about minus 8 Celsius.

I hope this story inspires you to find love in your heart and to share it during this time of advent and soltice in the Christian and Pagan traditions and that all people of the world become your peaceful family this Christmas.

Shanti, Shalom, Peace, Salaam and all other words that bring us a more loving world, Rev Noel Lockyer-Stevens