In the Service of Peace led by Dr. Stephanie Dowrick & Professor Kim Cunio 

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In the Service of Peace

Music, words, silence – a gathering for all peace seekers

led by

Dr. Stephanie Dowrick & Professor Kim Cunio 

To lift hearts, spirits and hope for a kinder, calmer world for all. 

Peace IS the way.

The only way if we truly care about people, planet and especially the worlds’s children.

Our efforts matter to the world they will inherit. 

     

 

It was a perfect autumn day to travel by train into Pitt Stree Uniting Church for the service. 

It was affirming to gather with many other peace seekers for an experience

of sublime music, words from the universal traditions,

time for quiet and twice  time for standing and greeting the people around us. 

We were caught hypnotically by the music  and the readings it worked for both of us .

We left to travel back home with a new seed planed 

of peace in our own hearts. There was a new and renewed calmness  in both us.  

“Peace be with you” There were the first words the risen Christ spoke to his disciples –
words which feel especially important as conflict continues around the globe.

 Event at the Pitt Street Uniting Church  Stephanie Dowrick 3- 4.30pm.

by Michael Keating

This was a surprisingly rich experience.  I found myself physically and mentally involving myself. Unfortunately I had forgotten, at the last, to take my recycled scribble sheets, so here I am trying to bring back some ideas that permeated a meditative state. Colleen has been sharing the Stephanie Dowrick Poem-a-Day from  her Facebook as they arise.

I immersed myself in the general ambience of the ‘liturgy’. Stephanie specifically distanced us from the idea that it was liturgical, however I cannot, at present, think of a clearer terminology for myself.

The music was excellent. The vocalists were captivating. The readings (from various belief frameworks) were too numerous and thus too hard to follow – they also needed more context. Fewer readings, read slower and with appropriate pauses would have helped. The only reading I recognised was Wordsworth’s ‘trailing clouds of glory’. However the ambience was such that the readings sort of fitted in well enough.

The following often-quoted maxim on mindfulness came clearly into my mind.

“Watch your thoughts, they become your words;
watch your words, they become your actions;
watch your actions, they become your habits;
watch your habits, they become your character;
watch your character, it becomes your destiny”

is a popular, often-quoted maxim on mindfulness. It highlights that internal thoughts shape external reality, usually attributed to Lao Tzu.

Lao Tzu: There is no record of this specific sequence in the Tao Te Ching or other classical texts.

The attribution likely grew because the quote’s focus on mindfulness aligns with Taoist philosophy.

Somewhere we have a laminated copy of this maxim, better set out. It will come to light at some later date.

At two points the congregation (mainly mature women and a sprinkling of men) was asked to standup and greet their neighbours.
I was surprised how gracious these were. The group seemed to mainly regular attendees (not necessarily locals)
and invitees through Stephanie Dowrick’s Facebook  (or other) contact.
One of the women chatted to us afterwards and alerted us to the quality of of the Jesuit parish at
St Canice’s Parish Church Potts Point.

Lao Tzu
=

The Autumn Garden by Colleen Keating

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The Autumn Garden

You could think I  have my head in the sand
that I am in denial of the world
that I am escaping the noise of reality
to let my garden coax me out to wander here
to stop and capture images
to gaze with a breathtaking gasp
at a  nodding purple pansy
and here I am following the curiosity of an orange-
brown butterfly in the sasanqua blooms 
and a gold-striped bee nestling  like a lover
into the crux of a flower

it is hard to fathom here that the earth community
is in such dire circumstances and that the world
as a garden is a distant almost impossible dream.
Yet here hope for humanity sings with cyclic miracles
and the  bright red echinaeca stand witness to  some
gifted seeds  planted and forgotten a few months back.

Colleen Keating

 

 

       

     

Raking the white pebbles and the haiku ‘How Brief’

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“How brief”

—- Yosa Buson, Japan, 1716-1784

Mijika yo ya!
Ashiato asaki
Yui-ga-hama.

How brief is this life!
Faint footprints on the sands of 
Yui-ga-hama.

The name Yui-ga-hama literally means “ Hot Spring Beach.” In Japan, a volcanic country, 
there are a number of places where hot water wells up through the sand, 
but in the town of Kamakura at its southern boundary, there is a beach known as “ Yui-ga-hama.”' 
Each day at all monasteries and temples in Japan the stones are raked freshly. 
The previous day's imprints are gone. Calm beauty is restored. Our inner "raking" can be similar, 
particularly in an age of profound agitation. What I like best about this haiku is that first line, 
also to be remembered each day. How brief indeed is this life! How precious!  Stephanie Dowrick 9/4/2026

  

Raked white pebbles at the Edogawa Commemorative Garden at East Gosford
where we meet for our White Pebbles Haiku writing group 
in each of the four seasons each year.

peace

white pebbles raked daily

in temple garden

Colleen Keating

 

 

Pick up your instrumant by Jalaluddin Rumi a Persian (Iran) poet

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Pick up your instrument

— Jalaluddin Rumi, Sufi poet, born Persia (Iran), died Turkey (1207 – 1273)

This day, like any day, you may wake up empty and fearful.

Before you begin your day’s efforts and thinking,
pick up an instrument and make music.

Let the beauty you most love be what you do.
There are countless ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Let the beauty you most love be what you do.
There are countless ways to kneel and kiss the ground.



The image above shows Professor Kim Cunio, a sublime musician,

Welcome. Rumi’s words are needed every day. How prescient he was. How “tuned” to what matters mot.

The Oud (A middle-Eastern lute)

Stephanie Dowrick

Easter Sunrise over The Entrance, Central Coast, from the Big Picture Window Dolphin House. 

Planet Earth: this is you. You are crew too

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Planet Earth, You Are a Crew
Upon returning to earth after their recent mission around the moon,

the Artemis II crew reflected upon their experiences,

saying they are now bonded forever.

“It’s a special thing to be human, and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth,”

commander Reid Wiseman said.  Astronaut Christina Koch said

she now has a new understanding of the word “crew” since their mission.

“A crew is people or, you know, a group that is in it all the time, no matter

what that is, stroking together every minute with the same purpose

that is willing to sacrifice silently for each other … Planet Earth, you are a crew.”

One Earth: All Beings Together

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We wish you an Earth Day filled with the knowledge that Mother Earth is a gift.  We are here to listen to her lessons.  We are here to walk together as one being.  We are here to make every day Earth Day.

One Earth Community
“To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny.  We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace.”  – Earth Charter Preamble & Department of Peacebuilding Act (H.R.1111) Finding #17

We Belong to the Earth
When the blood in your veins returns to the sea,
And the earth in your bones returns to the ground
Perhaps then you will remember that this land does not belong to you,
It is you who belong to this land.
The earth does not belong to us.
We belong to the earth.  – Chief Seattle
A Mother’s Work
In Braiding Sweet Grass, Robin Wall Kimmerer talks about a mother’s work and mothering the earth.  Kimmerer cites Paula Gunn Allen, who in her book Grandmothers of the Light, discusses the changing roles of women as they spiral through the phases of life from the Way of the Daughter to self-reliance to the Way of the Mother to the Way of the Teacher.  “Our work is not yet done.  The spiral widens farther and farther, so that the sphere of a wise woman is beyond herself, beyond her family, beyond the human community, embracing the planet, mothering the earth …”  Kimmerer writes “A good mother grows into a richly eutrophic old woman, knowing that her work doesn’t end until she creates a home where all of life’s beings can flourish.  There are grandchildren to nurture, and frog children, nestlings, goslings, seedlings, and spores, and I still want to be a good mother.”Planet Earth, You Are a Crew
Upon returning to earth after their recent mission around the moon, the Artemis II crew reflected upon their experiences, saying they are now bonded forever.  “It’s a special thing to be human, and it’s a special thing to be on planet Earth,” commander Reid Wiseman said.  Astronaut Christina Koch said she now has a new understanding of the word “crew” since their mission.  “A crew is people or, you know, a group that is in it all the time, no matter what that is, stroking together every minute with the same purpose that is willing to sacrifice silently for each other … Planet Earth, you are a crew.”
In Beauty I Walk
In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty againHózhóogo naasháa doo
Shitsijí’ hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shikéédéé hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shideigi hózhóogo naasháa doo
T’áá altso shinaagóó hózhóogo naasháa doo
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.
In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.

With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful…
  — Navajo Prayer, Walking in Beauty: Closing Prayer from the Navajo Way Blessing Ceremony
So be it.
Walk in peace, walk in beauty,Nancy Merritt
On Behalf of The Peace Alliance  and  the National Department of Peacebuilding Campaign

 

Today is Earth Day. It was first observed in 1970, but its roots go back to the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s landmark book exposing the effects of pesticides and other chemical pollution on the environment. Troubled by the lack of attention pollution was receiving on the national stage, Wisconsin senator Gaylord Nelson began going on speaking tours, trying to educate people and politicians about environmental issues, and while the public was concerned, the politicians didn’t pay much attention.

During the late 1960s, Senator Nelson had the idea to harness the energy and methods of the student protests against the Vietnam War to organize a grassroots conservation movement. At a press conference in 1969, he announced plans for a nationwide demonstration, to take place the following spring. It was a gamble that paid off, and the public’s response was enthusiastic. Gladwin Hill wrote in The New York Times, “Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation’s campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam.” Twenty million people nationwide participated in the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, and the government finally took notice, forming the Environmental Protection Agency and passing the Clean Air, the Clean Water, and the Endangered Species Acts.

According to the Earth Day Network, Earth Day is celebrated by a billion people, making it the world’s largest secular holiday.

 

Women’s Ink Giving Women Writers a Voice Autumn /March 2026 editor Jan Conway

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A new Women’s Ink has arrived in the mail.
Thank you to the Women’s Ink editor @Janette Conway

i am honoured to have my work included: my poem Perfect Pact
and my essay on the prolific Childrens’ writer Mary Grant Bruce
from my series I am writing on ‘Australian Women Writers on whose shoulders we stand.’

And very special to see our write up on the Di Yerbury Residency . Congratulations and very best wished to Christine Sykes  for a great Di Yerbury Residency in Enlands summer.

Thank you the indomitable editor, Jan Conway for a bumper edition and for your dedication to making the magazine
full of womens writing.

 

                                     

 

Mary Grant bruce was a prolific childrens’ writer.. Here are some of the Billabong Series  from my bookcase.

 

 

 

Ginninderra Press Celebration, Adelaide 2026

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It was an exciting visit to  Adelaide  for a Ginninderra Press Celebration. There was much to celebrate: –
30 year milestone of Ginninderra. Press,
launch of the Anthology  Telling Australia’s Truth, (Stephen Matthews final book before his untimely death.)
launch of Golden Days for Brenda Matthews (Eldridge)
and importantly to celebrate the life of Stephen Matthews AOM  who would’ve been 80 years old this weekend. 

Thank you and congratulations to Debbie Lee (Ginninderra Press) for her wonderful energy and enthusiasm
and all she did to help make the weekend the great success it was.
Thank you to Brenda Matthews for her presence and congratulations for the launch of her new book
written with Stephen AOM in his last year.
I felt very honoured to partner with Therese Corfiatis  to launch Telling Australia’s Truth, An Anthology in response  by 128 poets to the 2024 Referendum.
It was special to have Liz Newton  (President of The Society of Women Writers NSW.) over from Sydney.

       

The venue for our celebration was  most fitting . Spectacular. The Yitpi  Yartapuultiku Aboriginal Cultural Centre
( a new and exciting centre on the banks of the Port River in the heart of Port Adelaide )
I love  the welcome motto “Let us recognise the past, act in the present and build a better future.”

 Set in beautiful grounds  with natural playgrounds  and shady picnic spaces.

Adelaide was a buzz with festival energy. Autumn a true delight
bursting with colour and tranquillity.

                    

We strolled through the leafy mall and nearby streets  and into the Botanical Gardens and  sat under the golden hues of trees for a leisurely lunch.

    

The Art gallery is a bustle of wonderment . The Rodin sculpture i include in the photos

               

We loved the colour and sounds and smells of the multicultural food festival all the way along the mall.

              

Back story Ginninderra is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘throwing out little rays of light’, which is exactly what GP does, by giving voices to so many writers since its inception in 1996 in Canberra, reflected in its philosophy:

We believe that all people – not just a privileged few – have a right to participate actively in cultural creation rather than just being passive consumers of mass media.  Stephen Matthews

 Stephen Matthews, having graduated from Cambridge with a ‘fascination for books’, Stephen shared his journey into publishing, a path deterred by his career guidance counsellor who suggested teaching instead.  So after taking his advice, and from there into bookselling and eventually into editing, Stephen pursued his desire to ‘give manuscripts a place in our culture’.  He explained how getting published has literally changed peoples’ lives (I can vouch for that) and how print on demand has helped to secure the future of books, and indeed his workload.

A few past books discussed

Rays of Light: Ginninderra Press – the first 20 years compiled by Joan Fenney.

First Refuge launched by the former SA Premier and now ordained minister Lynn Arnold had this privilege and did so eloquently.  These poems from 88 GP authors explore social justice reaching into uncomfortable spaces – war, domestic violence, refugees, isolation – leaving nothing unearthed, resulting in a somewhat emotional journey when reading it from cover to cover.  To quote Ann, this is ‘a small book with big teeth, where language has power’.

Brenda Eldridge’s Golden Days navigates a gentle way through the journey of her husband Stephen Matthews’ fight with cancer and his choice to take the path of Voluntary Assisted Dying. In Brenda’s poem, ‘Silver Light’,she writes: I tease him about becoming a butterfly I want so much for him to be free.Brenda’s glorious and confronting poems explore a couple’s descent into illness; the helplessness and pain this inflicts. Her poems speak to an extraordinary love, full of tenderness, compassion, and the courage it takes to seek out golden days, as each day diminishes in hope.Her collection is a fitting tribute for Stephen Matthews, the man.

 

 

 

 

White Pebbles Haiku Group Autumn Meeting by Pip Griffin

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On Saturday 14th March, members Beverley George (convenor), Maire Glacken, Pip Griffin, Marilyn Humbert, Colleen Keating, and Kent Robinson met at our usual venue, the Gosford Regional Gallery, for morning tea before beginning our ginko in the ever-beautiful Edogawa Japanese Garden. The garden commemorates the sister city relationship between Tokyo’s Edogawa city and the New South Wales Central Coast city of Gosford.

In autumn sunshine, it was a delight to wander in the gardens, to watch koi and ducks in the stream and groups of children, accompanied by parents, running about excitedly near the pavilion, enjoying the unusual wild life and beautiful surroundings. As usual, there was plenty to inspire our haiku: pink-flowering rhododendron bushes, sparkling raked white pebbles, glimpses of the blue, shining bay through the palisade fence, the little Japanese bridge and the gently falling waterfall. We sat at different spots, jotting down haiku ideas, before going back to our meeting room to talk about our published haiku and/or book launches we are preparing, to share a haiku from a poet that had impressed us, and read aloud the haiku we’d brought, triggered by Beverley’s prompt, ‘unpredictable summer weather’.

Marilyn shared highlights of her very recent trip to Malaysia and commented on our haiku, sharing her expertise. I shared a haiku recently published in Echidna Tracks. Colleen told us she has been invited to read from her just-launched poetry book Ring the Bells at Words on the Waves Writers’ Festival on the Central Coast. Beverley showed us a lovely handmade haiku book, Winged Ones –birds of four seasons, by Satoru Kanematsu. She and Kent are planning a book launch of their delightful new haiku collection, Interwoven. The book will be stocked by Books Plus in Bathurst.

After a very satisfying morning of reading and sharing ideas, our meeting finished at 12:30pm. Our next meeting will celebrate Winter on Saturday 13th June, followed by Saturday 12th September, celebrating Spring.

Pip Griffin

Photograph by Deb RobinsonLeft to right: Colleen Keating, Pip Griffin, Maire Glacken, Beverley George, Kent Robinson,Marilyn Humbert

Our Autumn Haiku Weekend 2026 and the Sensory garden at The North Entrance

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Our Autumn White Pebbles Weekend was an extended few days with Pip Griffin meeting us at Hornsby Station and our journey up the coast . We had a relaxing journey north as the traffic was light and driving along Tuggerah Lake reminded us we had arrived in this special area. We crossed the bridge and had morning tea at the Sensory Gardens.

We had devonshire tea  and a walk along the edge of the lake. It was a sharp wind that hindered  us from walking  as far as we wanted to.

Back at ‘Dolphin’ We settled in and worked on our haiku for the meet the next day. And enjoyed relaxing , the view and company.

 

  

The next morning we were greeted with a magnificent sunrise and set out for East Gosprd for our White Pebbles Meeting.Afterwards Pip shouted us fish and chips at the famous place at Woy Woy and came to an end a great time together.