On Sunday, May 15, we had the amazing good fortune to meet an Alma alumna (class of '74) as we left Bilbao. We had lunch together at Hendaye, the French city on the Spanish border at the Atlantic coast. Dala Beld, the alumna, is one of the examples of how Alma impacts the world.
I've just read your blog from beginning to end and am very impressed by all that I read. What a fantastic experience you are having! Your comments about the good things--the sense of community, the way families and friends relate, promotion of renewable energy sources, great public transport--reminded me of some of the reasons I have for making the Basque Country my home.
ReplyDeleteThe different peace centers you mention interest me. A few years ago, I was very frustrated by the lack of communication and cooperation between the Basque and Spanish political groups in the Basque country--by the lack of peace. My frustration led me to do a beginner's course to train facilitators in conflict resolution at the Baketik Peace Center (http://www.arantzazu.org/index.php/en/baketik). Just like Elisabeth, I thought that the idea of inner peace was somewhat superfluous. The next course I took, "Living and Living Together: Four Learning Steps," is where I came up hard against the idea of inner peace as a fundamental step in becoming a peacemaker. Now, every year, I give myself the gift of a three-day course at the center that allows me to disconnect from the daily grind and to get in touch with and learn from myself. Despite the number of peace institutions here, we still have a long way to go. There's more than a grain of truth in the song "Let there be peace on earth, . . . and let it begin with me," isn´t there?