Mark's Web Site: A quiet place with just a bit of pretension.

This week I engaged in my annual Quest Retreat in Vermont. My quest this year is to find my voice for Peace. On the second day I made a Peace Hoop and erected it on my questing site. The interwoven branches of the Peace Hoop represent the intertwining cultures and traditions that must come together if we are to realize peace. The two branches of justice and understanding hold the Peace Hoop aloft fragilely. The third, smaller support is our collective will. All three are firmly embedded in the earth, which sustains us all. The hoop is oriented on a north/south axis in order to channel universal energy to its purpose.

I also offered this Prayer for Peace:

Creator, Great Spirit, Way of Light, Gracious God, Merciful Allah:
We know you by many names as the spirit that binds us one to another.
We know your desire for us to live together in peace.
Yet we wander our own paths.
We neglect to feed the starving, we neglect to shelter the homeless, we neglect to clothe the naked.
We fail to offer justice to the oppressed, we fail to offer understanding to the invisible. Remind us that your spirit, that spirit we all share, binds us in peace and love with one another.
In the darkness of conflict, when we seek to force our way upon another, or we seek to preserve our way from the forces of another, guide us to respectful reconciliation.
In peace there is hope, in hope there is love, in love there is life everlasting.
In the names of all those held holy on this planet, we pray. Blessed be.