Peace Invocation 2 September 8, 2011
Director Godfrey Reggio said, “I think it’s naive to pray for world peace if we’re not going to change the form in which we live.”
In homes and our Rotary clubs we need to start where we live to make a difference in the world. Our words and our attitudes are the building blocks of change. As the song says, “Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.”
(c) Shawn Bird 2011 Free use within Rotary. Please credit Shawn when you share this in your club. Please also leave a comment to document your club and when you intend to use it, for your members’ information. With thanks.
summer invocation June 10, 2011
Of course, officially there are still 11 days until summer. However, I hear that the Americans are already out of school, and with our temperatures in the high-20s it feels like summer at long last! So to celebrate here is a summer invocation for myRotary friends!
We are thankful for the warmth that summer brings
For friends from afar gathered ’round our table.
For the warmth of the caressing summer air,
humming with chittering, twittering things
For time off work to do what we are able,
to embrace a hurting world into our care
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Available for free use within Rotary; however, please indicate in the comment section below that you have used it at your club (date and name).sheltering the world May 13, 2011
Last August, a pair of British cyclists wheeled into town on a tandem bike to promote the Shelter Box program. We were the 400 mile mark on a tour that was to take Huw and Carolyn Thomas 10,000 miles around the world.
Shelter Box is an international humanitarian organization that stock piles green boxes about the size of a child’s school desk. Inside each box there are supplies for a family of ten to live following a disaster. The box is packed tight with items like a 10 person tent, blankets, school supplies, water purification and cooking utensils. The boxes are stored at strategic sites in the various continents so that they will be ready to deploy at a moment’s notice when a disaster strikes.
Since Huw and Carolyn left us, they have travelled through Western Canada and across the US. They flew home to England for Christmas and then flew to New Zealand for the next leg. They were there when Shelter Box was called upon to aid victims of the earthquake in Christchurch. Then they cycled through flood ravished Australia, seeing the boxes put to use there as well. Currently ShelterBox is deployed in Japan following the earthquake and in Colombia following floods.
Now Huw and Carolyn are in Europe and have passed the 8000 mile mark as they entered Holland this week. Their efforts to raise awareness of the ShelterBox organization has resulted in many individuals and organizations around the world sponsoring a $1000 box. Three of those boxes come from Salmon Arm, so if you are looking at photos of some disaster and see a logo for Rotary Clubs of Salmon Arm on a tent, you’ll know where our contributions ended up.
Visit Huw and Carolyn’s blog about their adventure at http://tandem10.wordpress.com
Invocation poem: THANKS April 30, 2011
Today we are thankful for all we’ve received
However we live, we firmly believe
All is a blessing that we must pass on.
No matter our status or where we have gone.
Kindness and generosity are what we impart
Showing the world what’s in Rotary’s heart
Invocation November 22, 2010
When we remember that like love, gratitude is an action, we are reminded that our responsibility is to demonstrate thankfulness. An attitude of grateful appreciation is an act of loving kindness to those around us.
Take a moment to think about what you appreciate today and to be thankful for the loving kindnesses that you receive.
© Shawn Bird 2010. Free use within Rotary.
Thankful for… Invocation October 23, 2010
We are thankful for warm hearts
that echo with the call to serve.
We are thankful for strong hands
that do the work to serve.
We are thankful for wise heads
that consider how best to serve.
We are thankful that willing members
allow Rotary to serve the world.
© Shawn Bird 2010. Free use within Rotary.
Another amazing Rotary thing… August 19, 2010
Today I had the pleasure of meeting a quite amazing couple, Huw and Carolyn Thomas of Cornwall, England. Of course, I wouldn’t have met them without Rotary. I went to volunteer some time today at a hot dog sale to promote Carolyn and Huw’s adventure to cycle 10,000 miles in order to promote the Shelter Box program.
If you haven’t heard about this program, it is another phenomenal way Rotary is making an impact in improving life amid horrible circumstances. Individual and/or organizations purchase a big green box (about the volume of a dishwasher). Inside this box is a huge tent, pots and pans, dishes, blankets, school supplies for a family of 10 to 12 to live for a year. The boxes cost $1000 to purchase. They are warehoused on several continents, ready for disaster. When a disaster strikes, like the earthquake in Haiti or the floods in Pakistan, Shelter Boxes are immediately dispatched from the closest warehouse, along with a team to ensure they are going where they are needed. Recently the three Rotary Clubs of Salmon Arm (Salmon Arm, Salmon Arm Daybreak, Salmon Arm Shuswap) purchased 22 Shelter Boxes.
Look closely the next time you see photos from a disaster zone: in the tent city that provides not only shelter, but hope and dignity, you may see a Rotary logo with the name Salmon Arm underneath it.
Rotary is amazing August 12, 2010
Once again at our weekly Rotary meeting, I was struck by how this organization is amazing in the scope of its vision and in the power of its members to make the vision reality. We had two guests, a Rotarian from Calgary, and a pop in visit by a Past District Governer from Kenya. How cool is that? Kenya. A few weeks ago we had Rotarian guests from Finland and from the Philippines. It is astonishing how wide our world is, and how interesting Rotarians are all over the place!
We had a typical summer meeting. About half the club was away and our guest speaker had canceled on us a couple days before. A few quick calls had been made to our outbound exchange student and a former exchange student to Malaysia who was in town from university. Both of them gave us some time, and our meeting was quite delightful and inspiring. It is a shame that only 11 of us got to experience the inspiration!
Many clubs sponsor the Youth Exchange program and believe in its power to improve the world, one young person at a time. Last night that was very powerfully illustrated to me, and I think our outbound Maddie (who is off to Argentina this weekend) and her father were quite amazed by the possibilities of the journey she is embarking upon when they heard Chad Shipmaker speak.
Chad remarked to me at dinner that Rotary owns him. It is certainly no doubt that this organization changed his life, though he is an impressive young man in his own right, and would have found a way to change the world without us, I’m sure. I am just really glad that we have been involved, because we get to have some familial pride in his accomplishments. After his time as a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Malaysia, Chad returned home to do a Bachelor’s degree at University of Victoria. He worked in Africa for awhile in development work. He was home working here when Rotary came into his life again.
Although many clubs participate in Youth Exchange, many fewer sponsor Group Study Exchange candidates. Due in no small part to the efforts of Lynda Wilson, our current club president who was formerly on the GSE District committee while she was Dean of Okanagan College, our club regularly sponsors GSE applicants, and quite frequently our applicants are chosen by the district to join the team. Chad Shipmaker was chosen as a member on a team that went to Chile. Back on our radar, we started keeping a closer eye on him.
Soon after, he decided to do his master’s degree and applied to be a Peace scholar. Our club proposed him. The district agreed with our nomination and forwarded his application to Rotary International. Rotary International was as impressed as we have been, and so this last year Chad has been studying at the Duke Centre for International Development in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He is “Fellow, Master of International Development Policy” and “Rotary World Peace Fellow.” Even the titles sound impressive. Just wait until you find out what he’s learning!
As I listened to Chad’s awe over the people he’s meeting, the speakers he’s hearing, and the work he’s been doing at the World Food Agency in DC, I can’t help but be inspired. Chad is just one amazing alumni of our Rotary Youth Exchange program. Not all RYE students are going to end up doing things quite as amazing as Chad, but we are in good company when we support the organization that gives us all the opportunities to change the world through the skills honed and polished through involvement with Rotary.
Vision and the power to make it so. Wow.
Rotary is awesome.
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PS. Stay tuned for another blog on the amazing accomplishments of Chad Shipmaker, coming soon to this space!
Shawn L. Bird 
Norway Peace Invocation July 29, 2011
Tags: invocation, Norway, peace, Rotary, shootings
In the peaceful country of Norway, known for its celebration of progress and innovative thinking, the unthinkable has happened. Promising futures are destroyed by narcissistic, self-deluding ideology
While there is war within a broken heart, peace can not reign within. Let us be mindful of our duty to promote peace within ourselves, for the individual must be at peace before a family can be at peace. A family must be at peace before a land can be at peace. Land must be at peace before a nation can be at peace. Nations must be at peace before the world can be at peace.
Let us take responsibility to mend wounded hearts and share peace with those around us.
Let us be thankful today for the health and safety of those we love, and thankful that the world grieves collectively this injustice. We are still a culture of peace, even amid destruction.
“Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”
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