By Jordi Palou-Loverdos
From the Stone Age people live in family and small communities. Most of them were not aware that other communities lived beyond the mountains and oceans. In last thousands of years we discovered we belonged to a large community who share waters, air, land, fruits, sun and stars, a little round drop floating in the universe. The challenge is today not only to know it, but to experience it, to feel it, and think and act accordingly, both at individual and community level.
“For years now, inspiration from Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo and the Peace Village community are present in all our commitments”
Some perceptions conditioned by diversity, various identities, beliefs and other differences drive sometimes to confusion. Some people even feel expelled from their community or the larger human community, and some fall in the way, causing harm to themselves or/and others. When identities, resources, power, economic growth, quantitative criteria and other positions appear to be more important than the beings themselves, natural conflict can degenerate in violence episodes, instead to be an opportunity for harmonization. We are still learning how to live together in harmony, no matter what conditions, differences or potentials we hold. What is our commitment today for life in this planet?
I have learned from people and communities, sharing at the same time what we have learned. For years now, inspiration from Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo and the Peace Village community are present in all our commitments, no matter if it is:
- assisting Rwandan and Congolese communities in the universal justice principle, or facilitating a large inclusive dialogue among their representatives (building community with VeritasRwandaForum as legal representative of victims and principal facilitator/mediator of IntraRwandan Dialogue);
- supporting Mothers of Chechnya resilience in their struggle for truth, justice and the memory of their loved ones that had disappeared (building community with Mothers of Chechnya, Lliga dels Drets dels Pobles, Novact);
- welcoming and empowering adult and child refugees arriving to Catalonia and escaping from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq or Central Africa (building community with FICAT Foundation and COMPTAL Foundation);
- facilitating new spaces and times for public “Memorial Audiences” for those who suffered harm during Spanish civil war and dictatorship (building community with 3 City Towns and NGO of victims and memory of Catalonia and as principal facilitator);
- helping to provide with various immaterial and material resources children in risk from many countries living in Barcelona; or
- generating times for individual and community wellbeing through the “House of Being” association, sharing spiritual journeys (as vice-president of Casa de l’Ésser and “Letter of Peace to United Nations” Foundation).
We are committed, here and there, with you, to discover and experience every day new paths of harmony, for the benefit of all beings.
Jordi Palou-Loverdos works as international lawyer, international mediator for conflict transformation and international consultant for human rights, active non-violence, conflict mediation, transitional justice and community resilience. CEO, AEQUITAS-LifeCoaching, Peaceful Conflict Resolution & Resilience (Barcelona, Spain). White Horse G.