 "Peace is the breath of our spirit.
It wells up from within the depths of our being to refresh, to heal, to inspire...." 
| ONE VOICE December 31, 2005-January 1, 2006 -- The Story
3:30 AM
Jennifer Childers --I arise with footsteps next and above to my room. I immediately feel the anticipation in the air. I feel a little sleepy, but determined to be in the Peace Dome before 4am. On my walk out to the Dome I look up to the sky and see the many stars that are shining in the sky. How thankful I am right now, for this moment. I enter into the dome and Kelley is turning on the lights as my good buddy Shawn and I enter and sit down. Others enter and soon the time strikes 4am and I once again begin the One Voice, like last year, with ringing the bell. How wonderful. As we recite the Peace Covenant, tears begin to well up within me. I am so happy to be here, with all these people to be reciting the Peace Covenant. As I look around at each person I realize that Jesse is not here. I feel sadness because my fellow gatekeeper is not here to experience this very moment with us. I send him a mental message to awaken and to come soon because this is what we have envisioned many times. As we end the reciting of the UPC, Dr. Barbara asks me to light the first candle that represents the first continent, because I am the light bringer every day. At first I am taken back by her request and at the same time I know from the inside out the honor in her request. After I light the candle and sit down to gaze into the flame, my heart begins to expand and I know it is my love for the Universal Peace Covenant that I am experiencing in this moment. It is going to be a really good day.
3:45AM
Kelley L. Naylor -- Couldn’t really sleep. No suprise, this day I have been anticipating for a year. I was the first one to the Dome this morning. I turned on the lights and the heaters. Shawn and Jen followed. We sat, a little sleepy, well a lot sleepy, but energized! The first prayer was about to begin! Feels like lighting a match...
Dr. Barbara Condron -- As I walk toward the Peace Dome I look up into the heavens. Space has taken on new meaning this year as we explore the POWERS of TEN. The study by Ray and Charles Eames done over three decades ago - about the same time the School of Metaphysics was coming into being - has become a point of focus for me in conveying the nature of the Universal Law of Relativity. ONE VOICE is certainly the epitome of that law, a 24-hour experience of its greatness. Stars twinkle and there is a glow on the horizon in every direction. I haven't noticed that before. The lights of Springfield sometimes reflect up into the ozone in the south. This morning, it is as if the earth is emanating her own light, timidly for it is soft light, new light. It is the Light we are helping bring into the world. "You must be the change you would see in the world" said Mahatma Gandhi. He knew what he was talking about and with ONE VOICE so do we. The night air is cool yet the temperatures are moderate for a Missouri December night. The weather reminds me that we are at zero point, an alpha and omega moment in time and space.
4:00AM
Laurie--It is beautiful to see so many new faces, celebrating, rejoicing in the song of peace. The dome is so tender, so silent it lends itself to only whispers. Jen will ring in the first place, Kiritimiti. This small island has come to mean so much to me over the past three years. It marks the start of a new day, a new thought for the new year.
Damian - The first time zone, the first recitation of the peace covenant, some people’s first time to experience One Voice in the Peace Dome! How thrilling!
Dr. Terry - Early in the morning I looked up at the sky extending my mind upwards and outwards around the earth. I knew at that moment we were initiation a movement that was going to affect every person on the planet. I felt gratitude from within my being.
4:15 AM
Damian - It is good to be here. This is the kind of consciousness I seek to bring to the people whom I teach and serve. There is unification, there is stillness, there is a calm sense of common ideal. It is this common ideal that moves me. Many hearts, minds, Spirits being and acting as One.
Dr. Barbara -- As we wait for Australia we pray and meditate. We speak of the day to come in quiet words as if sparing our energy. This is what it is to live meditatively. Wherever we go today, we will hold the Universal Peace Covenant in mind, reciting it with each time zone. What an amazing concept. Life, peace as both art form and science. We are actively creating a resonant mind pattern each time we read the Covenant in unison. As others around the globe join us, it is as if a circuit is plugged in to illuminate the earth. Radiant light no longer dependent upon the sun for its energy. Now generating its own. I think about what has transpired in the Peace Dome thus far in its young life. So many gatherings with so many people, and in only three years. Quan Yin, Jonah, The Silver Cord, singing, chanting, the Friendship Circle I wrote about in Peacemaking, weddings and dedication ceremonies, the world prayer on the ascension of Pope John Paul II, Satyagraha and Gandhi, The Invitation's Nobel Peace Laureates. Many evening meditations and morning prayers fill this space and move out into the world. I am filled with awe and appreciation for what so many individuals and groups have brought to this space, to this planet. I think of what will come, in these final moments of the YEAR OF KNOWING TIME I see lines of probability stretching for years. A thrill runs through me. We have built it and they are coming.....
5:00AM
Laurie-- As we awaited the next reading of the Peace Covenant, there was a deep stillness and silence both an outer and inner quiet. I looked around and thought how we were keepers of the light expectantly waiting for the moment. Gentleness comes into my being. This moment of silence in between reading has become an out breath. I breathe in the stillness, breathe out the joy.
Damian - Seeds. This is the year of the Yellow Cosmic Seed. I want to use this One Voice as a seed for all great things to come this year. I know what One Voice here in the Peace Dome did for me las year and throughout 2005. It served to stabilize me and uplift me through the highlights and trying times.
This morning I felt a welling up while we recited the Peace Covenant for this time zone. I experienced the movement of the preparations I have already made for 2006 and I received visions of what can be.
I will use this One Voice to generate, create, and receive the seed plan for how I will act in the world in 2006.
Barbara-- In the scope of life the thought comes to me that it matters not what you do it’s how you do it. In this year when the country I live in is waging a war on a country an ocean away I think of the people who believe it noble to fight for their ideals. I realize the collective unconsciousness in the belief that dying for a cause somehow proves it triumphant. The truth is history is written by survivors. Understandings are built during the physical life not while in the astral planes of the soul. In Alva Myrdal fashion I think of the opposing point that makes all the dying possible - that being the conscious urging toward sacrifice, what is it? "No greater love hath any man than to lay down his life..." In the Universal Language of Mind this speaks of change. For people to rouse from their sleep they must know the meaning of life. So in this moment I think of archetypal learning. I accept the effort we put forth in our vigil on this 3lst day of December and my mind opens to other vigils – these in foxholes and bunkers around the world. When you pray for peace the brain goes to war. How does the song go, "Ain't goin' study war no more..." I thought about that song a while ago when well-meaning people were teaching my eight-year-old son about the Revolutionary War. Is it history or is it teaching the thinking and ways of war? How important are those commandments and teachings in every religion defining the immorality of killing? Only by deep thinking, respect for life as Schweitzer called it, can we transform ourselves and thus have noble and superior ideas and practices to live and teach our young. What do we learn, how do we learn it? I am glad I am here this morning in the World's Peace Dome reciting the Universal Peace Covenant awakening the world to truth that is universal. The effort makes staying awake much easier for me.
6:00 AM
Laurie--Many have left to care for the animals on our land. My thoughts go to years before then back again. This is really a time for the present moment. I continue to read. Jen smiles as I pass her the candle that represents parts of Australia and Russia. The light passed on from one person to another bringing light to one person at a time.. Then my thoughts went to those at the barn. I feel their thoughts, their energy, their love and my heart fills with gratitide.
Damian - We were joined by Dr. Dan and ten-year-old Hezekiah for this time zone. We also moved into Asia. The day is already starting to feel full and it is still so early.
Barbara - Hezekiah's urge to document ONE VOICE is growing. He brings his camera this morning and after this reading heads purposefully to the college barn to take pictures of students reading the Covenant there. Between he and Laurie we will be sharing this experience through sight and sound very soon. I am grateful for the integrity in this effort that is a magnet for the best qualities in young and old alike. 7:00am
Kelley- Read the Peace Covenant with Dr. Barbara in the kitchen while she prepared brunch and I made chesese. I had read it upstairs in my room just before... I guess my clock is faster up there... Better to have two or more gathered. Living meditatively, marking my activity with Peace Covenants. This is the greatest life ever.
Karen---I was at the barn for root race filling the stanchion with grain for the dairy cows when it turned 6:00 am and I started to read the Peace Covenant. It was so still and peaceful at the barn with Star, the sow, and her baby pigs. Soon I heard Jesse and Sebastien saying the Peace Convenant as they brought the cows into the barn. It was such a connected moment. I realized how we were joined with those in the Peace Dome saying the Covemant. We were in different physical locations but we were connected in mind and spirit reading the Covenant together. There wasn’t any space or time between us at all. We were as one and I felt the people in their countries welcoming in the New Year with a sense of hope of things being different and new. I really realized how close and united in consciousness we are and how powerful reading the peace convenant is and what the effect it will have as more and more people join in the reading of the document from around the world.
Jesse Kern
Yeah! Just in time after Fourth Root Race Laboratory. The cows walked to the East Pasture more quickly than ever! It’s like they knew I desired to be in the Dome for the 7:00am recitation of the Universal Peace Covenant. This proves that thought is cause and animals manifest and reflect our consciousness as the higher, thinking root race of man.
I experience polarity within myself as I read the covenant, reacting to something someone said to me before we began reading. The phrase, “We vow to heal ourselves through forgiveness, gratitude, and prayer,” sticks with me. So immediately the covenant is my prayer. The forgiveness and gratitude I would practice after reciting the covenant.
7:30am
Jesse --Still a little out of sorts with my reaction. Again the phrase, “We vow to heal ourselves through forgiveness, gratitude, and prayer,” sticks. I determine to create an Inharmony List and apply the peace I am reciting in the covenant.
8.30 am
Karen------”Peaceful coexistence between nations is the reflection of man’s inner tranquility magnified.” is the line of the Peace Covenant that stood out to me this time. I am gaining greater awareness of my state of consciousness and how it affects the environment and the people around me. I realized that there are many times when I think that I am behaving in a peaceful manner but realize that my thoughts are anything but peaceful. I might be able to fool myself into thinking that no one notices but I see the differences in the way people respond to me. I realized that people around the world need to become aware of their own thoughts and how they affect their decisions and their reactions. I thought about how wars are created and wondered about the state of consciousness for the people who were involved in the unrest and terrorism in other countries. I see the real need there is for us to be better teachers, the need for everyone to be more conscious of their own part in the working of the Universe. People need to know that they can do something to make this place a better world.
Damian - I remain inside the main building with Jesse and Adam to recite the Peace Covenant while most people are in the Peace Dome. It is so good to experience connection and union with others while simultaneously performing similar activity. I think of all of the people we join with around the world today. the day continues |
ONE VOICE at the Peace Dome