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Jennifer Jones First Woman President of Rotary International

In her first week as President-elect of Rotary International, Jennifer Jones received an early morning call from a Rotarian who wanted a favor, admittedly a long-shot favor. It was the desperate days of evacuation from Kabul and the caller was trying to help an endangered young woman scholar get on a plane. The urgency of removing populations vulnerable to the Taliban had created a chaotic crisis with over 122,000 people being evacuated in eleven days. Jennifer remembers feeling small in the face of such a massive crisis. She remembers thinking: Who was I, and what could I possibly do? Then she remembered a peace fellow she had met years ago and trusted that "certain Rotary magic that we all know so well would take over. In less than 24 hours, the young woman was on an evacuation list. Two days later, we learned she was safely en route to Europe for further processing. It’s the Rotary Peace Fellow who’s the hero of this story." It's not surprising that the new President of Rotary International has chosen Imagine Rotary as her theme. In her theme address, she talks about the challenge of engaging all Rotary members, bringing them into the bigger vision of world service. "It’s our offer of hands-on service, personal growth, leadership development, and

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lifelong friendships that creates purpose and passion. These are our responsibilities. If we

don’t serve our members, we don’t serve our communities. And if we don’t provide comfort and care for our members, they may never truly “get” the power of Rotary." Jennifer Jones, Rotary’s first female president, is a long-time Rotarian who has served many roles in Rotary, including being the co-chair of the End Polio Now campaign, and developer of uniquely successful fundraising and awareness raising campaigns. She has received numerous awards for her work “This, my friends, for peace, disease eradication, and is the power of Rotary. clean water and

When the right connections sanitation.

are made, Youth Focused

the world aligns and our stories merge. Our differences dissolve, Rotaract Clubs Rotaract clubs bring together and the only limit to our impact people ages 18 and older to exchange ideas with leaders in is the barrier of our imagination.” the community, develop leadership and professional skills, and have fun through service. In communities worldwide, Rotary and Rotaract members work side by side to take action through service. From big cities to rural villages, Rotaract is changing communities around the world.

Scan to watch Jennifer Jones speech Finding Peace

by Barbara Gaughen-Muller Do you ever say to yourself, “I wish I could just find a little peace?” In our very busy lives, you may be feeling that peace is just impossible. My goal is to show you how small steps can help you add peace to your life. 1. Create a Peace Corner in Your Home My Peace Corner, a tiny sign, is in my kitchen to remind me to be peaceful. When I see this sign, I slow down and in that moment, I feel the peace that is right there, available to me, if only I am present to it: in the warmth of my home, the aromas of my dinner, and how good it feels to be alive, with a roof over my head and food on my table.

2. Start a Gratitude Journal

Write one positive thing that happened or that made you happy today. A friend uses her iPhone for her daily gratitude.

3. Use “Smile

Meditation” Spend one uninterrupted minute a day smiling. This will lift your spirits as well as work to dispel any negative feelings. 4. Perform Small Acts of Kindness It’s amazing how much brightening someone else’s day can brighten our own. Kindnesses don’t have to be expensive or elaborate. Let someone go ahead of you in the checkout line. Tell the parent with the fussy child how beautiful their little one is.

Peace is a journey, not a destination, and it begins with each of us. Small steps can lead to big changes. Look for opportunities to practice peace and watch how peace grows and expands to other aspects of your life. And it’s good for your health. From Frederico Mayor, Spanish scientist, scholar, politician, diplomat, and poet, directorgeneral of UNESCO from 1987 to 1999. “It is a good moment to repeat that a war is never won. Never mind that history books tell us the opposite. The psychological and material costs of war are so high that any triumph is a pyrrhic victory. “Only peace can be won and winning peace means not only avoiding armed conflict but finding ways of eradicating the causes of individual and collective violence: injustice and oppression, ignorance and poverty, intolerance and discrimination. “We must construct a new set of values and attitudes to replace the culture of war which, for centuries, has been influencing the course of civilization. “Winning peace means the triumph of our pledge to establish, on a democratic basis, a new social framework of tolerance and generosity from which no one will feel excluded.”

“It is a good moment to repeat that a war is never won. As peace builders, how do we think about what’s happening in Ukraine?

Yvon Chouinard, billionaire, just shocked the world by resigning from the billionaire’s club, paying $17.4 million in taxes for the privilege to do so. This unprecedented act may have shocked the world but probably didn’t surprise anyone who knows him or his background. He never wanted to be a businessman. The result of this donation of the company he and his family have built over almost 50 years will be the contribution of an estimated 100 million dollars per year to fighting the climate crisis which will add to the contributions already made through their 1% of sales contributions each year. From Patagonia.com: Since 1985, Patagonia has pledged 1% of sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. We've awarded over $140 million in cash and in-kind donations to domestic and international grassroots environmental groups making a difference in their local communities. In 2002, founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, and Craig Mathews, owner of Blue Ribbon Flies, created a non-profit corporation to encourage other businesses to do the same. Money isn’t all Patagonia offers. Their videos and films stimulate inspiration and activism. Here is one example:

https://www.patagonia.com/stories/activism/ Yvon Chouinard’s Letter Earth is now our only shareholder.

If we have any hope of a thriving planet— much less a business—it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. This is what we can do.

by Yvon Chouinard

I never wanted to be a businessman. I started as a craftsman, making climbing gear for my friends and myself, then got into apparel. As we began to witness the extent of global warming and ecological destruction, and our own contribution to it, Patagonia committed to using our company to change the way business was done. If we could do the right thing while making enough to pay the bills, we could influence customers and other businesses, and maybe change the system along the way. We started with our products, using materials that caused less harm to the environment. We gave away 1% of sales each year. We became a certified B Corp and a California benefit corporation, writing our values into our corporate charter so they would be preserved. More recently, in 2018, we changed the company’s purpose to: We’re in business to save our home planet. While we’re doing our best to address the environmental crisis, it’s not enough. We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company’s values intact. One option was to sell Patagonia and donate all the money. But we couldn’t be sure a new owner would maintain our values or keep our team of people around the world employed. Another path was to take the company public. What a disaster that would have been. Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility.

Truth be told, there were no good options available. So, we created our own.

Instead of “going public,” you could say we’re “going purpose.” Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth. Here’s how it works: 100% of the company’s voting stock transfers to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, created to protect the company’s values; and 100% of the nonvoting stock had been given to the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting the environmental crisis and defending nature. The funding will come from Patagonia: Each year, the money we make after reinvesting in the business will be distributed as a dividend to help fight the crisis. It’s been nearly 50 years since we began our experiment in responsible business, and we are just getting started. If we have any hope of a thriving planet—much less a thriving business—50 years from now, it is going to take all of us doing what we can with the resources we have. This is another way we’ve found to do our part. Despite its immensity, the Earth’s resources are not infinite, and it’s clear we’ve exceeded its limits. But it’s also resilient.

We can save our planet, if we commit to it.

Imagine: a world without birdsong

There are more dramatic disasters of course:

Ukraine is living with war and estimates are that 30,000 Ukrainians and Russians have died. 16 million children are suffering from the "super flood" in Pakistan which damaged or destroyed 1.8 million homes.

Megadrought in American Southwest, termed the worst in 1200 years, shrivels Lake Powell and Lake Mead.

A heat dome devastated the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe with record-shattering triple-digit temperatures that led to droughts and wildfires.

The Yangtze river is drying up.

Civil war continues in Ethiopia and Yemen and the drug war in Mexico has disappeared more than 70,000 people.

Gun violence in the US continues including 21 children and teachers murdered in Uvalde, TX. Those disasters are too big to comprehend as they flash in tragic color across our news feeds. But birdsong disappears one note at a time, a gradual diminishment of companionship and beauty. A landmark study in the journal Science estimates North America has lost about 30% of its bird life since 1970 because of habitat degradation, urbanization and the use of toxic pesticides. That's about 3 BILLION birds.

What happens to us if we lose the morning sounds of birds waking up? The Last Egret

“Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.” ― Terry Tempest Williams

There is no peace without Earth

“Peace is not just an absence of war; it is food, water, shelter: rain and sunshine for crops; trees to make the oxygen we breathe; and clean rivers, lakes and oceans to hydrate our bodies. “Fortunately, we live on a planet that offers us all of these gifts. However, we have not been good caretakers of them.

“Climate change is considered by many as among the greatest risks for peace and security in the 21st century. As the planet’s temperature rises, extended droughts, rising sea levels, and more frequent and intense storms are affecting the lives and livelihoods of people in all corners of the globe. Particularly in conflict affected settings, these impacts can compound economic, social or political drivers of insecurity, leaving already vulnerable populations on the frontlines of multiple, intersecting crises.” – UNWomen.org “Climate security and peacebuilding are deeply connected. “For instance, extreme weather events brought forward by climate change can lead to reduced access to natural resources, which could result in hostility. Further, armed conflicts make climate security more challenging to implement as governments and their development partners are unable to neither mitigate nor support climate change adaptation. “Furthermore, efforts to fight climate change can voluntarily or involuntarily limit access to land, water, and food resources: over time, this can increase disputes over natural resources in a way that can turn violent. Climate change, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, and malnutrition. “These four interconnected global crises have put at stake the wellbeing of our planet for years. Fueled by COVID-19, their impact on agriculture, landscapes, biodiversity, and humans is now stronger than ever. Reversing this negative trend is a challenge, but also an opportunity for bold choices and integrated solutions.” – Alliance of Bioversity International and the

International Center for Tropical Agriculture

“Ever piece of matter, everything we know, is a beautiful ballet made of countless invisible dancers’ movements together.

It is a dance too small to see, and yet so large it is the whole universe!”

– Elisabet Sahtouris, Gaia’s Dance

RotaryEClubOfWoldPeace.org

In her landmark book Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer outlines the indigenous view of harvesting the bounty of the earth honorably. And, while it pertains to the act of gathering foods and medicines, this is also a remarkable code for living together in respect, honor and peace. Kimmerer says in the video above (QR code), "If I could choose just a single element of the teachings we're called to pick up, it would be the teachings of The Honorable Harvest, a practice both ancient and urgent, that applies to every exchange between people and the Earth. Its protocol is not written down, but if it were, it would look something like this: • Ask permission of the ones whose lives you seek. Abide by the answer. • Never take the first. Never take the last. • Harvest in a way that minimizes harm. • Take only what you need and leave some for others. • Use everything that you take. • Take only that which is given to you. • Share it, as the Earth has shared with you. • Be grateful. • Reciprocate the gift. • Sustain the ones who sustain you, and the Earth will last forever. “The Honorable Harvest is a covenant of reciprocity between humans and the land. This simple list may seem like a quaint prescription for how to pick berries, but it is the root of a sophisticated ethical protocol that could guide us in a time when unbridled exploitation threatens the life that surrounds us. Western economies and institutions enmesh us all in a profoundly dishonorable harvest. Collectively, by assent or by inaction, we have chosen the policies we live by. We can choose again. What if the Honorable Harvest were the law of the land? And humans—not just plants and animals—fulfilled the purpose of supporting the lives of others? What would the world look like if a developer poised to convert a meadow to a shopping mall had first to ask permission of the meadowlarks and the goldenrod? And abide by their answer? What if we fill our shopping baskets with only that which is needed and give something back in return?”

"The “Honorable Harvest”: Yes! Magazine, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Nov. 26, 2015

“Maybe it was the smell of ripe tomatoes, or the oriole singing, or that certain slant of light on a yellow afternoon and the beans hanging thick around me. It just came to me in a wash of happiness that made me laugh out loud, startling the chickadees who were picking at the sunflowers raining black and white hulls on the ground. I knew it with a certainty as warm and clear as the September sunshine. The land loves us back. She loves us with beans and tomatoes, with roasting ears and blackberries and birdsongs. By a shower of gifts and a heavy rain of lessons. She provides for us and teaches us to provide for ourselves. That’s what good mothers do." – Robin Wall Kimmerer

Barbara Gaughen-Muller … my garden is my joy

Peaches, Pears, and Plums galore So plentiful they drop to the garden floor Zucchini, Chard, Kale and Tomatoes And compost bins filled to the brim.

Mulberries, tangerines, oranges, too Sunflowers bloom filled with bees and their lovely tune Especially when loquat flowers bloom

I'm so grateful for symphonies of the bees That create the fruit I share and the vegetables that fill my plate. Each season new miracles appear Thank you for this garden joy year after year.

“Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized.” – Allan Armitage