November 21: “From my experience of hundreds, I was going to say thousands, of children I know that they have perhaps a finer sense of honor than you and I have.” –Gandhi (Young India, November 19, 1931) How often does our media turn to hear the voices of children when violence occurs? We see their… read more
Posts by Stephanie Van Hook
“Adel Termos’ Example”–Daily Metta
November 20: “Not to yield your soul to the conqueror means that you will refuse to do that which your conscience forbids you to do.” –Gandhi (Harijan, August 18, 1940) When Adel Termos went to the open-air market with his daughter in southern Beirut, he did not know that he would be called upon by… read more
“We are sick of blood-spilling”–Daily Metta
November 19: “I feel in the innermost recess of my heart…that the world is sick unto death of blood-spilling.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. 3. p. 115) According to Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan in Why Civil Resistance Works, people avoid using violence if they do not have to, only resorting to it if they feel that… read more
“Holding up a mirror”–Daily Metta
November 18: “Sorrow and suffering make for character if they are voluntarily borne, not if they are imposed.” –Gandhi (Mahatma vol. 3, p. 122) During one of his stays in London, this time for the Second Roundtable Conference on the Freedom of India, someone asked Gandhi this question: “Mr. Gandhi, if sorrow makes for character… read more
“Help one person”–Daily Metta
November 17: “Only one who has exhausted all efforts may say that he can do nothing more.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol.4) When we feel a problem is too big to solve by ourselves, many of us tend to draw back into our shells and resign ourselves to doing nothing. Here’s what Gandhi offered to a friend… read more
“An indomitable will”–Daily Metta
November 16: “Strength does not come from a physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. ii, p.5) While he weighed in at a little over a hundred pounds in his physical body, Gandhi’s spirit was immeasurable. He was living proof that strength was a quality that transcends the body. Muscle is… read more
“The Nonviolent Moment”–Daily Metta
November 15: “I have learnt through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger.” –Gandhi (Young India, September 15, 1920) One of the most pivotal moments of Gandhi’s life was when he was kicked off the train in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, for sitting in a First Class compartment because he was Indian, though… read more
“No surrender to brute force”–Daily Metta
November 14: “In the code of the Satyagrahi there is no such thing as surrender to brute force.” –Gandhi (Young India, April 30, 1931) This week, when suicide bombers targeted a busy south Beirut marketplace, an indiscriminate attack on men, women, children, whoever happened to be there on an evening like any other, it was… read more
“An expression of love”–Daily Metta
November 13: “The various items of constructive activity that you are doing are only the outward expressions of truth and ahimsa.” –Gandhi (Mahatma, vol. iv, p.239) I was visiting my friend in her weaving studio when I first heard about a powerful project taking place in the southern Arizona desert, the borderland between Mexico and… read more
“Talking to gun owners”–Daily Metta
November 12: “We are fearless and free, so long as we have the weapon of Satyagraha in our hands.” –Gandhi (Satyagraha in South Africa) The funny thing about guns is that in nine cases out of 10, the person behind the trigger is scared to death. A gun does not represent bravery as much as… read more
