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September 6 through 12 is Suicide Prevention Week. While we’d like to think that we’d never encounter or experience a suicide in our lives, most people will know someone, somewhere who has either attempted or committed suicide at some point in their lives.

Almost 30,000 Americans die of suicide every year, making it more deadly than HIV/AIDS. It’s the third leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24, and it is estimated that for every person who commits suicide, another 8 to 25 have attempted it. In fact, at least 1 in every 7 teens has thought about doing it. Read more

Amma.org

Modern day saints are hard to come by these days, but they do exist. Ammachi is one such woman from southern India who is now hailed across the globe as a great saint and is endorsed by everyone from Oprah to the U.N. and the great peacemakers and religious figures of our modern civilization. Her story is a humble one, beginning in Kerala, India in 1953, in a small fishing town with every strike against her as a low caste, dark-skinned girl in traditional Hindu society. She was constantly in a rapturous state of devotion to Krishna from a very young age which, grew to producing miracles of healing and transformation, manifesting her physicality into the likeness of Krishna during a religious ceremony with many witnesses. There is a wonderful biography about Amma written by Judith Cornell, "Amma: Healing the Heart of the World." Read more

If there is one statistic to remember today, it’s this: 90% of the people dying in wars today are civilians.

Whether you’re a peace promoter or war supporter, don’t you think that this single, startling fact should make people think twice before declaring war in the name of anything? Is oil, money, property, food, anything worth spilling the blood of so many women and children in any country?

It’s so easy to ignore this fact when it’s not taking place on our own home soil, but just to put it in perspective, imagine that instead of Afghanistan or Iraq, there was a war being fought here in America—and that for every 10 soldiers dying, another 90 women and children die. Read more

With so much world violence happening at every moment, and kids being exposed to bullying (both on and offline these days) at such early ages, it’s more important than ever to start teaching nonviolence and the importance of peace at an early age.

“Peace?” you might think, “Isn’t that a bit of a large concept for my toddler?” Not really. Consider all of the times you tell little Carson to not hit or to play nice, or remind young Sasha to share her toys or even to use her “inside voice.” Even preschool teachers who have “Keep your arms, feet and other objects to yourself” or some variation of that rule enforced in their classroom are teaching peace.

Whether you’re a babysitter, teacher aid, parent, or you simply have little ones in your life as neighbors or relatives, you can foster peace, too. Read more