World Peace Weekend

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Dear Agents of Compassion, This year’s Global Unity Compassion Games coopetition has truly been off the charts. After 15 days, the World Peace Weekend is upon us. It’s not too late to play sign up here.  Sign up to play in the Global Unity Games! When you’re done playing, share your experience on the Compassion Report Map. Explore the tremendous gifts of loving-kindness and compassion taking place all over the globe.  The World Peace and Global Unity campaign encourage us to “synchronize globally” and “organize locally.” Our theme has been building bridges to peace, prosperity and the planet. We are humbled and inspired by the commitment from people all over the world to collaborate across divides, unify to share intentions, and act to create a peaceful and loving world. The Compassion Games let’s us “gamify” our compassionate actions through the fun of a coopetition. There are events and activities happening all over the world, add or discover one on the Peace Event map here. Saturday is Global Solutions Day a day dedicated to identifying and co-creating a platform for sharing the myriad of solutions already exist. http://solutionsrevolution.global     On Sunday, there is a Globally Synchronized Meditation taking place at 12 PM PDT.  If you are in the Pacific Northwest on Sunday there is a Walk for Reconciliation. Reaching More People Than Ever! The “Compassion Games Climate Change” video has been viewed oer 6 million times and shared over 119,000 times.  Let’s see if we can have this watched 10,000,000 Times! Let’s share widely. Compassion Relay of Champions Warm up your spirit; visit the Global Fireplace. Let the passion and fire of many Champions of Compassion fuel your spirit.  Then grab the closest “Compassion Torch” (any flame can be a Compassion Torch) and play Build a Global Fire by sharing your commitment to loving-kindness and compassion. Daily “Secret” Missions The 2017 Global Unity missions are inspired by the principles of permaculture. They encourage us to create a new story of who we are and our lives here together on Planet Earth. (These missions are “secret” since some agents do their good deeds anonymously. Do as you see fit!). Visit all the missions here. 24 Hours of Champions of Compassion On the International Day of Peace, we stayed calm and shared the work of amazing champions of compassion from all over the globe.  Bridges to Peace are bringing built by organizations and projects such as the Peace Pledge Project and Combatants for Peace. Prosperity is being created in Compassionate Cities all around the world. In this coopetition we birthed the Compassionate Cities League. We witnessed first hand the power of connecting cities within a region. We visited with Compassionate Netherlands and the different mayors and cities working to build a compassionate region. Louisville and Dallas took their rivalry to a new level and Compassionate Australia declared itself committed to being the first “compassionate continent!” On the International Day of Peace, they launched Compassionate Gold Coast as the first of a number of Compassionate Cities emerging throughout Australia.   The Cities League is also building bridges to many other city initiatives such as Resilient Cities, Smart Cities, International Cities of Peace. We passed the Compassion Torch to Sol Trumbo Vila is managing the Transformative Cities initiative being organized by the Transnational Institute.    The future of the planet belongs to our youth and their children. The wisdom of the Indigenous Peoples is essential and vital for us to collectively learn how to Protect and Restore our Mother Earth. At The Hague, we passed the Compassion Torch on the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Rights of the Indigenous People.    We passed the Compassion Torch to the Synergized Earth Network a global value-driven and commitment-based intergenerational network of networks bringing together and synergizing the aligned and unique complementary contributions for social change and sustainable development in all segments of society on a local, national, regional and global level.

Agents of Compassion... We've officially made it to the World Peace Weekend! During both days of the World Peace Weekend (September 23-24), Compassion Games partner, UNIFY, is hosting Global Synchronized Meditations as a direct expression of the New Story of our time. Together, millions of people around the world will synchronize their minds through the power of meditation, holding within our collective spirit the vision of a peaceful, prosperous, unified Human Family. Together we will unify over 2,000 communities around the world to engage in synchronized meditations and peace-actions. The collective ripple-effect of our intention and action will inspire compassionate acts and service projects, and will be visualized on our world-wide interactive Event Peace Map. By illuminating these events and activities we are creating opportunities for learning, sharing, and connecting. Agents, take a moment to view the Event Peace Map, and try to identify meditations happening near you that you can attend! If there aren't any events near you, you can host your own or simply meditate from wherever you are!

Remember to report and share your experiences on the Compassion Report Map! Good luck, Agents!

We pass the Compassion Torch to United Earth today! Join United Earth today LIVE and participate in Global Solutions Day!  Learn more about United Earth in this Champion Spotlight Article HERE.

On The International Day of Peace, we completed the first EVER 24 Hours of Compassion with 24 different Champions Of Compassion and 24 Missions. Can the world stay calm for 24 hours? Your welcome to bring 24 Hours of Compassion into World Peace Weekend too! The Compassion Report Map is open to report on October 2nd! Game on! #24Hours #BuildngBridges #CompassionUnites

Explore Past Missions! Want to view past missions that dive into the space between the Old Story, and the New? Want to revisit previous missions, or reconsider how permaculture principles in the missions can support your life? View Past Missions Here!

Compassion Games: A few results Mission 12: Creating a culture of Permanence

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Agents, over the past 13 days we’ve been exploring some pretty bold ideas. We began by saying that it is out of the cracks of an Old Story that a New Story for our world can grow, and that we actually have the ability to create this New Story ourselves. Why? Well, because the life within us and around us wishes to live. Therefore, we can learn to trust and harness this power for the benefit of all life, and all future generations. In fact, the Old Story fought to control and overcome the life within and around us because it didn’t understand how life worked or wishes to be. It forced people to take jobs they didn’t like and forced lawns to exist where wildflowers and forests wish to grow so the bees and butterflies will return. The New Story, on the other hand, does just the opposite - instead of fighting life, the New Story learns from life and works with life in partnership. Well-being, purpose, fulfillment, community… these are values that the New Story actually honors. And this, Agents, changes everything. Our last eleven missions have in fact been based on a movement that creates thriving models for old problems in just this way. It’s called permaculture, which is a contraction of the words “permanent” and “culture.” Permaculture is a system of design that observes how nature solves problems and provides abundance, and then creates human systems based on these vital insights. By mimicking the natural world, permaculture allows us to create solutions that include how to better grow healthy food, use energy creatively and efficiently, make sustainable shelters, earn a fulfilling living, and even share the surplus of our efforts with others. Observing nature is the foundation of permaculture. Because of this, we began our journey by first observing and then harnessing the life within and around us. Harnessing life energy relates to the permaculture principle of catching and storing energy, and then obtaining a yield (or benefit) from our efforts. In following missions, we also used and valued diversity, embraced the power of relationships, considered nothing waste, utilized small and slow solutions, and even saw solutions within the problem itself. Each of these is also related to design principles of permaculture. But… So what? Why does permaculture matter? The path ahead of us is full of uncertainty and change. What our New Story requires now is a model for how to live in harmony with the world around us, which means we must find ways to provide the resources to fulfill everybody’s needs. The Old Story offered plenty of ways to satisfy our endless wants while providing very little for what we actually need to live good, long, healthy lives. The space between these two stories is certainly “edgy.” Yet, in permaculture, an edge represents the interaction of two worlds, a rare opportunity to build bridges between the old and the new. In this time, it’s how we choose to respond to change - not react to it - that will determine how this Story of Our World will end up, and whether it’s one we can really be proud of. Agents, our mission is to continue learning about permaculture as a model for what we actually wish to live into! Can you see how our missions could expand to support other aspects of your life?  Check out the video below to learn more about permaculture! You can also read an incredible introduction to permaculture here.

Mission 11: Slow and Small is Fast and Big

Nature holds the clues to a world of abundance, peace, and prosperity. In our previous mission, we began to explore quite a complex idea: that problems are, in fact, solutions in disguise. When life gives us a problem, our role is not to overcome it, but to understand it. It is in our understanding that we discover a way forward. As intelligent as human beings are, we can’t change the rules of reality to heal the world. And we don’t need to! By learning the nature of whatever problem arises before us, we can produce solutions that arise from understanding life rather than trying to defy it, which will never work. Let’s take the idea of finding solutions a step farther, Agents, again with wisdom inspired from Mother Nature. Though the Earth is a single, living system - where the beat of a butterfly’s wings in South America really does affect weather patterns in Antarctica - the Earth has many regions with unique characteristics. A desert, for example, is clearly a different environment than that of a forest. Yet, not all forests are the same, either. This is why we find unique species living in different forests depending on where we’re looking in the world. On a deeper level, this is nature’s way of solving a problem: how to evolve and sustain life. The result, as we can see, is countless forms of life living in places around the world. Yet, nature doesn’t create one form of life that can live anywhere on Earth, and then call it quits! Can you imagine a fish with feathers? Feathers are far more cumbersome under water than fish scales, yet a vital and ideal tool for a bird’s flight. So nature found two life solutions, instead of just one solution: fish AND birds! Nature uses slow, small solutions to develop many forms of life. The end result is absolutely breathtaking: billions of lifeforms on a single planet, but suited to many environments... interconnected yet uniquely distinct!   Our mission today, Agents, is to solve a problem the way nature does… with slow, and small solutions.  A mistake in schedule, not a big deal made by anyone, everyone collaborated and tomorrow the drone picture will be better When we think of solving problems that the world faces right now - climate change or hunger, for example - the Old Story teaches us we need HUGE, FAST, EXPENSIVE solutions to solve them. Yet, what this can often do is paralyze us into inaction, for we feel we are so small, with problems so large, that our decisions make little impact on the problem. What if addressing climate change really did begin in our own communities? It doesn’t have to be as lame as just changing our light bulbs (though this can help). What if we built houses differently so we didn’t have to use a furnace at all, but still be warm in winter and cool in summer? (See how Earthships are doing just that!) What if we grew our own healthy food in our backyards, rather than buying food that needs to be shipped thousands of miles to get to us? What if interacting with those around us compassionately could really regenerate neighborhoods and rebuild communities?   These types of solutions are possible, and they happen right where we are! Give it a shot... just remember to start SMALL! (And slow!) Remember to report and share your experiences on the Compassion Report Map! Good luck, Agents!     The Champion Spotlight illuminates outstanding organizations and individuals around the world whose work is contributing to a more peaceful, just, and compassionate planet. These entities are known as Champions of Compassion.   Tonight we begin to pass the torch to 24 incredible Champions of Compassion around the world! 12 AM PDT - 11:59 PM PDT The 24 Hours Of Compassion begins! This featured way to play will be LIVE on Compassion Gamesr FB Page inviting individuals and teams to new missions, actions to embody calm compassion all day. Each hour will be highlighting a new champion. Join us and share this event with your friends.

Mission 10: When Problems are the Solutions

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In our last mission, we explored the bold idea that only through nature’s many failed attempts to solve a problem that success can be found. In this way, making mistakes are like the laying of stepping stones. Without these stones being placed before us, we could never have reached the end result of success! Agents, nature takes our ideas about failure - along with the inevitable problems we will confront in life - and flips our assumptions around about them even further. In the Old story, we are often taught to think that a solution represents a clever way to outwit a problem we are facing. Human beings, we are taught, have large brains, and with our problem-solving capacities, we can overcome any obstacle life throws at us. Except, what life often throws our way isn’t a problem, but rather a puzzle. At the center of the puzzle, something remarkable awaits us… the nature of the problem, which is in fact, the solution. Take the art of flight, for example. Evolution, confronted with the physics of air, eventually led to a specific type of feathered species that could take to the skies. The problem of aerodynamics was in fact the catalyst for the form of a bird as we know it. A bird's biological form didn’t outsmart the wind, it eventually learned the ways of the wind and found the solution by harmonizing with its nature. Agents, our mission today is to look at problems not as adversaries to overcome, but as the solution in a trickster disguise. Drone and scheduling challenges with Wing.  Will let you know how effective the solutions after Peace Day Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say. Get creative and see the challenges you face today as a mirror for yourself as well as a looking glass. Somewhere in there, a solution awaits, ready to be found. Remember to report and share your experiences on the Compassion Report Map! Good luck, Agents! The Champion Spotlight illuminates outstanding organizations and individuals around the world whose work is contributing to a more peaceful, just, and compassionate planet. These entities are known as Champions of Compassion. Today we pass the torch of compassion to the great work being done down under at Compassionate Gold Coast. Check out the bridges of peace, prosperity, and planet they are building in today's featured article! Game on! On Day 11

Mission 9: Wastes No Mistakes

Agents, let us continue our exploration into the mysteries and insights of nature as a model for the New Story we wish to live into. Yesterday, we began to see that nothing can be counted as waste in nature, because Earth’s system is a closed loop. Unless something literally leaves planet Earth, everything - from decaying organic matter to toxic pollution - eventually cycles back into the Earth’s biosphere with both positive and negative consequences. This is why, in reality, there is no such thing as “away” as in the idea that we can “throw garbage away.” Yet, nature has far more to teach us about the use of waste in the creation of new life. Let’s take a look how... In the Old Story, we are once taught that mistakes were a sign of failure. Making a mistake represented some inferiority to those who do not make mistakes, meaning we may be judged as unintelligent or unworthy in some way for our failures. Yet, if we observe the workings of nature, we can see nature makes mistakes constantly! Nature will try out a thousand possibilities to solve a problem - say, to find the right type of plant to repair degraded soil. Out of these thousands of possibilities, only a small handful will actually work for the job. So, did nature fail hundreds of times? Should nature hang its head in shame? We can’t really say that, because it was only through failure - repeated attempts to solve a problem - that the natural world found the solution it was looking for to repair this soil, which allows even more biodiversity to live there in the future. Nothing in nature is wasted, and so nothing in our human lives can be wasted. Mistakes that we make simply become the compost for future growth and future possibilities. Even the most embarrassing or discouraging mistake is the richest pathway to the solution. Our mission today, Agents, is to make beautiful mistakes, and then be grateful for the chance to learn from them.  I lost my phone and with the help of many I found it in the first place I thought I left it, but it took 20 minutes to find it.  The time looking for it was made easy because of the help I received from others. We make mistakes everyday. All of us. Someone wise once said… “Want to know the difference between a master and a beginner? The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”   So make mistakes! Of all colors and shapes! Just remember to learn from them by celebrating them!

Mission 8: Transmuting Waste into Beauty

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In our previous mission, we just touched the surface on how nature utilizes biodiversity and a complex web of inter-relationships to ensure the conditions for life continue to thrive on our planet. We began to see how diversity within the human family is an expression of this same principle found in nature, and thus began to honor the extraordinary diversity found in our communities to strengthen our connections to one another. Agents, it may come as no surprise that the insights and lessons that nature has to offer us in building a New Story go even further. Let’s take a look at another principle found in nature that is relevant to us in healing our world. In nature, nothing is ever wasted. In fact, in an ecological sense (or Earth sense), there can be no concept of “waste.” Unless something literally leaves the planet, everything is eventually cycled back into the Earth’s waters, soils, and ecosystems one way or another. This means we cannot pollute the Earth without polluting ourselves. However, in the Old Story, we are often taught to believe that something could be thrown “away.” “Garbage” in the form of plastic packaging or styrofoam, chemical toxins, and even food scraps from last night's dinner was once put into a special bin. And then, once a week, a big truck would come by to take the garbage somewhere. Where? Well, the Old Story never really said where it went! But today, Agents, the landfills that once held all of this stuff are full. There isn’t any room left to hide our so-called “waste” - because nature doesn’t have any - and really, there wasn’t really ever an “away” to begin with, either. So, now, the New Story must reconsider the entire concept of waste altogether! What does a human world without waste look like? How can we take something that was once considered broken, “garbage”, or worthless and turn it into something beautiful and useful again?   Our mission today, Agents, is to take something that was once considered “waste” and give it new life, usefulness, and even beauty! This concept is sometimes referred to as “upcycling.” Many valuable resources considered waste can actually be salvaged and used for new projects. Wood from an old barn, for example, can be refinished and used as siding on a house, or even furniture. An old washing machine ring can be turned into a unique, enclosed fire pit. Check out UpcycleThat to explore some of the infinite possibilities! (Note: It’s always preferred to donate or give away what we no longer need to others instead of tossing an item in the landfill. This is also a form of “upcycling.” And of course, let’s use this mission as a way to be more mindful about what we put into a landfill, what we recycle, and what food scraps can be composted as soil.) Remember to report and share your experiences on the Compassion Report Map! Good luck, Agents!     The Champion Spotlight illuminates outstanding organizations and individuals around the world whose work is contributing to a more peaceful, just, and compassionate planet. These entities are known as Champions of Compassion. We are thrilled for Day 9 of the Unity Games Relay to highlight the Peace Pledge Project!   Read about the legacy of Yoko and The Beatles here!