Here's another way to think about this Portal -- as a way to create peace across this planet...

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I got a little private email yesterday, from somebody on this network, who I met years ago at an interfaith event in Spain.  This lady is a peace activist, working in a challenging part of the world, where conditions can be very tough, and people can be very violent.  There is a lot of tribalism, a lot of inequity, a long history of imbalance and unfairness and anger -- no doubt all mixed up with many other energies that afflict us today, like poverty and drugs and prostitution and gangs, plus intense political ideology -- everything that drives war in the streets...

And I thought about this a little bit, and asked myself, what could possibly help in a situation like this, that is so intense, so primal, so dangerous...

Is it totally naive to suppose -- that a kind of "peace-making network" could emerge from somewhere, and begin to draw all these intensely conflicting and accusatory forces into a single body of relationships -- where everyone with some stake or attitude or energy in the situation began to enter into a very sensitive and totally inclusive process of negotiation and mediation -- based on everything they know about humanity -- and everything everybody else knows about humanity...?

This kind of network -- might begin by a kind of outreach process -- that looks for people involved in this warfare -- inviting them all into a kind of totally inclusive large-scale network process. This network -- would meet everybody on their own ground, and invite them to speak their message and their truth into something like this "Portal".  What do they believe, what are they fighting for, why are they fighting, what would they like to see happen, what is a possible route or way this could happen...

Some tribal leader or warlord or guerrilla freedom fighter or spokesperson -- is invited into this process.

Maybe it would begin simply by listening -- receiving their message, their input, their vision, their statement...

Then, perhaps, it might be mentioned that some others are also being engaged in this way...

Others who might be seen as "the enemy" -- who we must destroy or kill or overcome...

 If each of those people -- could fully unfold their own statement, and add into our "Portal" everything they believe about human relationships, and what makes things work -- perhaps a very gentle process of negotiation could begin.

This process -- would essentially depend on people agreeing to "stay in relationship" -- maybe following a lot of these ideas on "Dialogue" and "Sacred Listening" that we are beginning to put into our portal...

Something like that.

Each one of these contending groups would be different, with an intense and forceful agenda -- that we are trying to resolve into a common agreement and "win/win" situation for everybody...

We build faith and trust throughout this network, because we listen to everybody, no voice is crushed or ignored or excluded, and there is room in the network for everything everybody has to say.  It all "gets in there" -- plainly visible, "transparent".

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I was thinking that maybe this process looks a little bit like the sacred circle process outlined by Carolyn Anderson in the Co-Creator's Handbook.

For each individual in this process, it might begin like this, as one of these local groups in this process has formed itself...

This (above) is a picture of one of these local groups, that tends to see itself as righteous and angry and fighting hard against some enemy -- that exists somewhere over the horizon, and has formed itself in somewhat similar ways.

Could it be -- that many of these circle/network groups, each with its own identity -- could be called through a network process, into this kind of convergence to a common center?

It seems to me -- that this is the "natural and organic" way to bring peace into the world.  It's not going to really happen because some charismatic "uniter not a divider" arises in some country, and starts enforcing his vision of the way everything has to be.

Everyone has to realize their own balanced truth and peace at their own individual/local level -- and then move from there into a kind of expanded connectivity with those immediately around them -- and then, in an expanding peace-making process -- this same kind of resonant relationship-formation has to reach out across borders -- to "engage the enemy" -- and work resonantly with that "enemy" as the differences and issues are worked through and somehow resolved...

Something like this -- CAN be organized over the internet.  Yes, it's very idealistic, and who knows whether it has the raw political power to work in the real world, or whether something defined this idealistically and abstractly can actually engage people living and working in the streets.  But my guess is - - yes, it can happen.  Enough energy, enough resonance, enough faith and conviction, enough staying power -- and all of this provided by the universal currents, and not depending on "mere human strength" -- could eventually emerge to facilitate this process.

Indeed, we might even say that these pictures describe what is already happening in the world, as borders dissolve, and people become closer.  But the truth is -- "we're not there yet", and right now, in the world, there are dangerous and explosive forces, battering away against each other.  We are going through a transition.

Maybe we can wait, and "let this transition happen by itself", and maybe it will.  Or maybe, as I am inclined to suppose, we need to intentionally and consciously facilitate this process, with all the wisdom and skill and capacity and technique we can possibly bring together.