Finding Peace

I need a quiet place to sit for a while. A place in the woods or by the sea, where I can touch moss and rock, feel wind in my hair, and hear the rustle of living things in the overhead trees and on the ground at my feet. I want to catch a glimpse of deer, and watch a parade of ants diligently carry tasty bits back home. Solitude in nature. It is the food and water and air of my soul, and just as necessary for my well-being. It brings peace. But the temperature stayed below freezing all day and plans for an outing to Larrabee Park turned into an outing to the newly opened Community Food Co-op instead.

The new Cordata store opened on January 15, and was built using U.S. Green Building guidelines, with energy and resource saving features such as daylight integration, heat recovery, Forest Stewardship Council-certified or recycled wood, recycled steel, wheatboard cabinetry, and landscaping consisting of all native, drought tolerant, and low-or non-allergen plants. There are even special parking spaces designated for alternative fuel vehicles.

I didn’t find Peace in nature today. But I found it on the shelves of the new Co-op. Looking at and admiring the plethora of olive oils, I noticed a bottle with a white dove and the name “Peace Oil.” Peace Oil is a joint project of Israelis and Palestinians. With all of the death and destruction that has recently occurred in Gaza, the bottle of olive oil I held in my hand filled my heart with joy to know there are good people working together for peace in that troubled land. It is “extra virgin olive oil from Palestinian farmers using traditional methods of the region, without pesticides and fertilizers. Supplied by three fair trade groups, two Israeli, one Palestinian; Peace Oil encourages grass-roots cooperation, building bridges between the two peoples.”

Elsewhere in the store I found CD’s produced by a local, independent company called Soundings of the Planet. Considered New Age music, it features Native American wood flutes and the sounds of nature. On their website they talk about their desire “to create a peaceful, musical experience for people, especially urban dwellers, that would get them in touch with the vibration of the earth and they would then be inspired to make decisions that affected the planet in a positive way. That was our original vision of creating Peace Through Music." If you go to their website, be sure to check out the “Increase the Peace Campaign.” I bought one CD... Wood Over Water. While it is peaceful and relaxing, it does not take the place of actually sitting on a rock at the edge of a stream, but it will have to do until the weather warms.

... PLM