Important Update: “For PeaceSakes ! TroopsHomeFast! And The Great American Slow Down Fnst” ..A New Way to Fast for Peace and 100 Fasters for Peace…10am-Noon …and Please bring Flowers this Saturday if you can! Hello Friends, This is Cindi Fisher….Many of you know, this summer I went to Washington DC for one week to join the Code Pink Women for Peace “Troops Home Fast” and later visited Camp Casey 3 for one week! My Heart ached even more for Peace as my awareness of those suffering and dying in this terrible War of aggression grew! I fasted for 40 Days from July4- July 4-August 12 and now have committed to fast every Saturday until the Troops Come Home! Most Saturdays, I Sing and Stand for Peace at the Vancouver Farmers Market from 10ish til noon. This Saturday September 23, I have ask for 100 Fasters for Peace… to join me 10am-noon We haven’t reached 100 yet but I am hopeful and still signing folks up, but will also be grateful for each of you who show up or join me from afar.! There are two ways to Fast! 1) You may Fast from Solid Food with water or juices for the day (or as you decide)… 2) or you may choose to Fast from FAST TIME for the day! Both ways can help deepen your reflection and experience of Inner Peace.. .Many wise teachers say Inner Peace leads the way to a greater expression of Outer Peace and thus Peace In the World! I will be teaching a very simple technique to assist you in fasting from Fast Time, It can be used throughout the day and is called 10 Minutes, 10 Slow Steps, 100 Deep Breaths for Peace. (I have written a description also at the end of this email) Some of you signed up at Vancouver’s Farmers Market/Esther Short Park several weeks ago and plan to fast with me at the Market. We will meet at the corner of 8th and Esther. 10am-noon Some of you have committed to fasting at work, others at home and some, even on the golf course that day! Wherever you are, whether you have signed up or not, Please Consider Joining Us. Our purpose for fasting and gathering together is “to provide an opportunity for a Personal Statement for Peace and Bringing Our Troops Home Fast, for quiet reflection, for building a stronger Peace Community and for Joy! I am also offering the opportunity to ALL to please consider joining me in an Early New Year’s Resolution… Resolve to Fast (from food or fast time) for the next 15 Saturdays (as of September 23,2006) until the New Year. Thus planting and nourishing the seeds so that 2007 will bear the fruit of a more Peace Full Year! My Friend, Joy Ellison, loved the idea and said I should call it “The Great American Slow Down” and so it is! I will Fast both ways as part of the Great American Slow Down! I will have empty paper plates, for those who join us at the park, symbolic of Fasting. If you are Fasting at home, please consider writing on a paper plate in bold Patriotic Colors I Am Fasting for the Troops Home Fast and tape it to on your house door or car window. Those of us gathered at the park will have an opportunity to meet each other, share, participate in a park peace walk, sign the voters peace pledge, have fun with some peace games, and send a letter to our local elected officials~ You are also invited to bring flowers but it is certainly not necessary~ I will deliver them to our officials with a copy of the words of the song…”Where have all the Flowers Gone?” (for you young ones…the song is about the flowers being used for the gravesite memorials of those killed in the war) May you Walk Slowly In Peace,…Cindi Fisher Here is the technique … 10 minutes, 10 slow steps, 100 Deep Breaths for Peace. This calming practice was a cornerstone in giving me the Vision, Strength and Determination this past summer to fast 40 days with the Code Pink Women’s Troops Home Fast! 10 minutes Attempt to stop every hour on the hour and for 1 minute focus on your breath…inhale very deeply into your abdomen ; shoulders released, mouth slightly open, fingers relaxed, body at ease and very gently release the air as if you are a gentle caressing breeze blowing peace to a weary world…Believe you are the One the World has been waiting For (most of us are awake around 12 hours or so… thus I left room to forget and forgive ourselves … you could miss a couplefof times and still stop 10 times that will be 10 Minutes---) 10 Slow Steps Create space in your Saturday (or choose another day) for 10 minutes with Nature…doesn’t have to be deep in the forest, although that would be wonderful :) your back yard, a tree, a patch of grass…or just outside in the fresh air..rain or shine…or at least open your window wide and look at the sky…begin standing still slowing down your breathing…breathing peace …bring your attention to your body and begin walking…only move ever so slowly, paying close attention to every muscle that moves and how your body moves and shifts weight as each foot ebbs and flows, up…swing, over and down…in the beginning you will probably begin with more than 10 steps in 10 minutes…however this practice became so calming and peacegiving to me that sometimes it has taken me ½ hour to go 10 feet (about 10 Slow Steps)…and in time after the focus on my body calmed my mind, I began to commune with creation in miraculous ways. 100 Deep Breaths If you have been able to do the first two steps by the end of the day, this part is easy…Remember in part one, where I ask you to try and stop every hour, well if you were able to stop 10 of the 12 hours and breathed 10 deep breaths…there you have your 100 Deep Breaths for Peace…Thank You ! For PeaceSakes ! Troops Home Fast! The Great American Slow Down! In Service to Peace, Love and Light, Cindi I see a world free of violence and abuse, free of war and the threat of war; a society with equity and justice for all people of all villages and nations; a nurturing, empowering, and connected community life, where every person's potential is supported in unfolding from conception through elderhood; and the earth is restored now, and honored and cherished for generations to come! Please join me in creating Peace in Our Hearts, Peace in Our Vancouver Village, Peace in Our Time!