Blog Your Blessing : Peace in Our Time

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At the base of the monument it says:
This is our cry. This is our prayer.
For building peace in the world.


The Children’s Peace Monument in Hiroshima is one of the world's most haunting memorials. The bronze statue of a girl holding a paper crane atop the memorial is the likeness of Sadako Sasaki. Sadako was two when the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Nine years later, she was diagnosed with leukemia. According to Japanese myth, if she folded 1000 paper cranes, she would be granted one wish. She died before getting her wish. If you wish to know how to fold a crane, please see this video on YouTube.

Similar stories, wishes and memorials proliferate. Below is a poem by A. Hikmet that was also a song sung by The Byrds. May we all pray for peace in our time.


I Come and Stand At Every Door

I come and stand at every door;
but no one hears my slient prayer.
I knock, and yet remain unseen . . .
For I am dead. For I am dead.

I'm only 7 although I died . . .
in Hiroshima long ago.
I'm 7 now, as I was then,
When children die, they do not grow.

My hair was scorched by swirling flame.
My eyes grew dim; my eyes grew blind.
Death came and turned my bones to dust,
And that was scattered by the wind . . .

I need no fruit, I need no rice.
I need no sweets, or even bread
I ask for nothing for myself:
for I am dead. For I am dead.

All that I ask is that for peace , , ,
(You fight today . . . you fight today)
So that children of this world,
May live and grow and laugh and play.


Visit The Blue Panther Experience, host for Blog Your Blessings Sunday. We are bloggers of all faiths, creeds and races, so everyone is welcome. Join us on any Sunday as we blog our blessings.



Time to Say Thanks


Just wanted to pause and think of the men and women all over the free world who have sacrificed their lives so that I might exist today. You are the true heroes of my story, my life, my children.

I also wanted to thank the young people that stand vigil today so that I might live free to die of old age. God bless you Bravehearts in the Middle East.


Blog Your Blessing : Hallowmas

The origin of Halloween began over 2,000 years ago with the Celtic priests or Druids. The Druids believed that Samhain (October 31), marked the end of the time of harvest, plenty and the end of summer and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, often associated with human death.

For Samhain, Druids built huge bonfires and wore costumes of animal heads and skins to keep the dead away. Soothsaying and sacrifices were the main activities of this night. When the morning of November 1 dawned, the villagers lit their hearth fires from the central bonfire to celebrate the beginning of a new year.'

Under Roman rule two celebrations–Feralia, commemorating the passing of the dead, and Pomona, for the Roman goddess of fruit and trees–were added to the celebration of Samhain.


In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 as All Saints Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-Hallowmas. Samhain began to be known as All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

In 1000 A.D., the church declared November 2 as All Souls Day, a day to honor the dead. The three celebrations–the eve of All Saints, All Saints Day and All Souls Day–became known as Hallowmas.

While the origin of Halloween is surrounded in myth and legend, Halloween remains, at least in the USA, a time of carnivals, trick or treat, costumes, pumpkins and mischief.

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