"...I was planning to be a suicide bomber. Now, I believe in peace, and I believe peace is possible- because I can feel it for real inside me (pointing at her heart)"... Young Leader at Sheva's Peace Training

As I understand it, the girls are only 14 - 16 years old, they jeopardize their safety by participating, and they return home to families who do not understand... yet last week, Young Leaders (girls) from Palestine and Israel, came together with Sheva Carr to discover the transformative power of love and the heart.

I wanted to share Sheva's experience as well as her words to add hope and heart to your day and to invite you to continue to send heart to each of these leaders.

The girls' names have been deleted for safety reasons. I did not feel comfortable using initials, so I have designated each as "Girl".

Sheva's words:

"The last two days of training have been moving beyond words, and I wanted you to know your heart is getting there. Even though it has been moving beyond words, I thought I would share some of the words from the girls themselves to convey that.

"Here are some quotes from them after today's training- and the transformation they went through as they used the tools. Today I worked with the Young Leaders- tomorrow (keep the heart coming!) I will work with the staff from the Middle East...

Thank you for supporting this wonderful work and including the girls and their mentors in your heart...

All my love and gratitude for your energetic support,"

Sheva

Girl: I doubt myself. I don’t trust myself. Freeze Frame. How does my heart see me? My heart looks at me and sees greatness.

Girl: (pointing to her heart) I didn’t know I had this – I feel this thing inside- I cannot explain it- I am so – I feel this thing inside now I did not know was there! I love this! I love myself!

Girl: I didn’t know I was so powerful. I feel powerful. I didn’t think peace was really possible. I was planning to be a suicide bomber. Now, I believe in peace, and I believe peace is possible- because I can feel it for real inside me (pointing at her heart)

Girl: I will never forget you. You will always be with me. You have changed my life. You didn’t give me the answers- you gave me the way to always find the answer for myself.

Girl: You should come every summer.

Girl: You came at just the right time in my life. I wish I’d had this a year ago, but you came at just the right time in my life and this is exactly what I need right now. You need to go to a new country every week and bring this there. Every place in the world needs this.

Girl: This changed my life. I feel so different now than when I arrived here.

Palestinian Girl: My best friend is an Israeli soldier. I cannot help it- I love her so much- she doesn’t want to be in the army- my friends say, “If you meet her at a check point with a gun in your face are you going to hug her?” I say yes now! I cannot help it – I just love her so much- she is my best friend. I am going to hug her!

Girl: We need to know that it is ok to be happy. We don’t have to live in so much fear all the time.

Girl: I cannot love my father if he is dead. I cannot feel the love unless he is here in the room. (we did Quick Coherence with the prospect of meeting their favorite rock star- they all flushed and got excited- “is the rock star in the room?” They laughed. Now feel the love you had for someone close to you that died. Is the love still here? Yes!) “OH!!!” said (the girl) - her pain evaporated and we asked her where the sadness went. “It disappeared!”

When we did the emotional landscape map at first the girls wanted to put power on the left side- the incoherent side- of the map. We had them do Quick Coherence and ask their hearts to define power. What came out of it was a discussion on how power is different from aggression- and empowerment is not power over. They loved the Rescuing Hug slide- we asked them- “Was the twin girl who saved her sister’s life powerful?” Yes! Power is different from domination… Then they practiced sending care to one of their group who had a headache and it went away…

...

The girls started using the tools right away- when they lost each other in the caravan on the way to where they were eating dinner, they reminded their driver to send appreciation to the cars ahead they could not see, and they found each other again...

I will share a bit more tomorrow.

From dreams of becoming a suicide bomber to believing in peace... What a shift! Extraordinary!

Again, I invite you to send heart to these girls and their mentors. And I invite you to send heart and love to Sheva.

All my love,

Linda L. Pannell

P.S. Reminder: Tomorrow is week 4 of our 10-Week Course, Everyone Is A Healer: The Healing Power of Love (Week 4: The Role of Thoughts and Belief In Healing) Tuesday, July 26, 2011 8:00 - 9:30 ET (5:00 to 6:30 PT) You may register for the individual course or for the entire 10-week series by clicking the link below:
http://www.worldchangingwisdom.com/optins/love-reg.html