APOLOGIES...to all of you...

A

I have many apologies to make...

I have not kept my word...

And, as many of you know, this is very important to me...

I promised to finish the post about the Zapatistas and Subcomandante Marcos...

I promised "Tears of Gaza" that I would write a review, my sentiments about this most powerful film...

Yet, as you well know, I have not yet completed these things...

I am sorry with my full heart...

After seeing the film "Tears of Gaza," my heart has been torn apart...

And quite honestly, I just have no words to write as of yet, for only my heart contains them at this time...

I have been silenced...I have been devastated, and I have been fully humbled...

So at this moment, I ask your forgiveness for having been silent when I promised to speak...

I pray that you give me just a little more time...time to pull the voice and the pain out of my heart...

I ask you to give me the opportunity to be within my very heart and soul to comprehend this deep, deep sorrow contained...

I shall write again and I know that it will be soon...

I can feel the feelings, the words, the cuts, and the stabs beginning to unravel...

...Beginning to wish to speak out again and share with you about "Tears of Gaza" and to share with you about my beloved Zapatistas...

I thank you for always being faithful, patient, and understanding of whatever it is that presents itself within my life...

That prevents me from sharing my voice with all of you my beloved readers of BeamtheLightBetheChange...

It is always...temporary...

My voice shall ring out to all of you once again...

My love to all of you always and may we always spread, love, goodness, and precious kindness to each other...

Peace and love...Paz y amor, Maria

Maria Juarez Beam...

Wanting To Be Held...To Be Touched Again...

Yes, my San Francisco Giants are in the World Series...!!! :)

So this picture befits...

Yet, I mainly chose this picture due to the intent look within my eyes...almost as if they have tears...

I feel it quite apropos for this post...

Forgive me if I have used it in the past...for some reason it speaks to me tonight...

As many of you know, who visit me regularly, I am recovering from a serious fracture of the tibia...

I am healing and recovering, yet it has been a long road...

I have not been sleeping well at night...

This could be due to the leg, but at 5:30 am Pacific Standard Time after being up since 2:00 am PST...I came to a conclusion...

I want to be held and to be touched again...

I could feel it within the very core of my inner depths...the yearning strings of a harp wanting to be played...

A few tears flowed as I was lying there sleepless in bed...

Also, wondering, what does it take to get someone to hold you, to touch you, and to love you once again...

It has been eight long years now since my husband passed...

Yes, I have had "boyfriends," even several marriage proposals, yet at the time, it was just not right...

Now, I feel that I have mourned him as he deserves...

 I am pining, longing for deep compassionate love...

For someone to hold me each night...to touch my face, and my long hair...

There is nothing more majical then the power of touch...

I could melt and sleep as a babe in a man's arms once again...

I feel I am finally ready...

Yet, who out there is ready for me...?

Well, here goes Maria again baring her deepest soul, her wide open heart. I thank each of you with all of my heart for reading my words, for my writing them to you, helps me to understand myself better each day, and to become better. I am given the opportunity to truly understand what it is that I truly need. With all the depths of my heart...I thank you. May love be with all of you and may each of you have someone to hold each night. It is a precious gift...

All my love to all, Maria

Maria Juarez Beam

“So she thoroughly taught him that one cannot take pleasure without giving pleasure, and that every gesture, every caress, every touch, every glance, every last bit of the body has its secret, which brings happiness to the person who knows how to wake it. She taught him that after a celebration of love the lovers should not part without admiring each other, without being conquered or having conquered, so that neither is bleak or glutted or has the bad feeling of being used or misused.”
― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha Quote courtesy of http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/touch

"Your body needs to be held and to hold, to be touched and to touch. None of these needs is to be despised, denied, or repressed. But you have to keep searching for your body's deeper need, the need for genuine love. Every time you are able to go beyond the body's superficial desires for love, you are bringing your body home and moving toward integration and unity."

Henri Nouwen   Quote courtesy of http://blog.gaiam.com/quotes/topics/touch

 

                  "Touch and love everyone...it is a beautiful gift to the heart and to the soul." Maria Juarez Beam

 

 

Musical Selection: Mana "Lluvia al Corazon"

 

http://youtu.be/p5k8BPMndao

 

Rain of the Heart...

 

Music in any language speaks to us all...please do enjoy...:)

 

Rebels, Champions of Peace...The Zapatistas & Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos

This is an older post that I thought I would share. I have much more to share...this is only the beginning. May you enjoy the journey with me...

Perhaps you have heard of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico...

Perhaps you have not...

The Zapatistas, also know as EZLN...Erecito Zapatista de Liberacion National...

If you have then, you have been blessed with a gift of knowing of such incredible peoples...

People who had faced some of the greatest challenges and overcame...still overcoming difficulties, but strong and never giving up...

These are true champions & people of true heart...

Pictured above is Subcomandate Insurgente Marcos who had/has been the leader of the Zapatista Movement...

He is a gifted man of great words, of love & care, & concern for all of the world's oppressed, of a lion's & a lamb's heart...

It was January 1st, 1994 when the true rebellion began...when NAFTA had been in first effect...

Chiapas is the southern most state of Mexico and the most impoverished...

Indigenous Mayan Indians had been farming the land for thousands of years...

Yet, NAFTA would take this away...

With the assistance of United States weaponry, the Mexican Government & military invaded the State of Chiapas to overrun the rebellion & to take over land...

Heartbreaking and unconscionable...

I will share with you what I remember of this time, also the activism that I became involved in, and also some links and some more history. Yet, for tonight, I must say goodnight. I always begin thinking that I will finish, but then I realize that in order to do any of my pieces their due justice...I need my sleep for after my medication kicks in for my epilepsy, I am one sleepy girl. I thank all of you for your patience and understanding.

This is part of my series of oppressed peoples around the globe, either past or present...yet, not in the future. In this, I have great hope. I realize I still need to finish a piece about American Indians, which I shall complete. I felt compelled to write about the Zapatistias at this time.

So for now good night & I shall return tomorrow to hopefully complete this piece. In the meantime I shall attach a few links, pics, and words of Zapatista wisdom...:)

All my love as always, Maria

Maria Juarez Beam...Paz y amor por siempre

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/01/20111183946608868.html



“We hold a dialogue to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. That's why we hold a dialogue.” Subcomandante Marcos...Quote courtesy of http://thinkexist.com/quotes/subcomandante_marcos/


"You have to give people hope.." Subcomandante Marcos SOURCE: Guardian Unlimited 2012-10-
15 11:11:00
Quotes courtesy of http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Subcomandante-Marcos/quotes/

PAZ

The Golden Rule...Is GOLDEN

The Golden Rule is simply this...Golden...

And to it, each of us, ought to be beholden...

To show goodness & kindness to our fellow being...

From our heart ought not be fleeing...

When you see someone in need...

That person was put upon your path to free yourself from greed...

We cannot ever allow ourselves to judge anothers' condition...

We have no idea how it came into it's fruition...

Treat a person as you would want to be treated...

Simple words that need to be heeded...

Kindness & goodness come at no cost...

Just a bit of time that is not lost...

A person who may seem in a really bad way...

All that they need is that light...that ray...

That you have been given the opportunity to give...

It is our guide to which have been commanded to live...

The Golden Rule may have different wording in different religions...

Yet, to live it is truly our decision...

A decision that would come straight from the heart...

Of this, in life we are a great part...

Love your fellow being no matter their lowliness...

We are needed to shower them with our kindness...

My dear beautiful family at BeamtheLightBetheChange, I thank you so for reading my simple prose. I plan to post some more pictures and some quotes with this poem for at the moment for me it is quite late and I must get my rest. I did have this deep in my heart and I, at least wanted the words to flow unto all of you.

I send my light and my love to all of you...always, Maria

Maria Juarez Beam...

Oh, and I will also include a song...:) Sweet dreams all...

I realize that this video may seem long, but trust me it is well worth it...it it simply breathtaking and it quotes the Golden Rule in many religions and philosophies...please do take the time.

http://youtu.be/2Ci613QcC5E

It was made my Humanity Healing Network

                   When one is harmed we are all harmed...when one is helped we are all helped...

Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding

Baha’i: "And if thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbor that which thou choosest for thyself." Lawh’i ‘lbn’i Dhib, "Epistle to the Son of the Wolf" 30

Buddhism: "Hurt not others in ways you yourself would find hurtful." Udana-Varga, 5:18

Christianity: "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets." Matthew 7:12

Confucianism: "Do not unto others what you do not want them to do to you." Analects 15:13

Hinduism: "This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you." The Mahabharata, 5:1517

Islam: "Not one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." Fortieth Hadith of an-Nawawi,13

Jainism: "A man should wander about treating all creatures as he himself would be treated." Surtrakritanga, 1:11:33

Judaism: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole of the Torah; all the rest of it is commentary." Talmud, Shabbat, 31a

Native American: "Respect for all life is the foundation." The Great Law of Peace

Sikhism: "Treat others as thou wouldst be treated thyself." Adi Granth

Taoism: "Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss." T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien

Zoroastrianism: "That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself." Dadistan-I-Dinik, 94:5

www.tanenbaum.org
Musical Selection: Maher Zain: "The Choosen One"

http://youtu.be/eEscSub1k1c

Enjoy all it is beautiful...It is all about Acts of pure goodnes and kindness...:)

Let us all be good and kind to all...always. All my love you, Maria

A Hawk Flies Free...

Look at the glorious colors of this beautiful Red Tailed Hawk...

Stunning, amazing, glorious...

I have grown up most of my life living near these lovely creatures of freedom...

Yet, today, I glimpsed the colors that you see in this photo...

I was in complete awe...

I must have taken in the beauty for a while...

What a splendid and phenomonal gift this was for me...

To see the colors these hawks reflect from the sun...

To have seen them so close up...

To have be able to gaze upon them...

To have them be reminders of FREEDOM...

As I shared in my last post...

I have not been feeling so free...

Being a slave to this broken leg...

Yet, my physical therapist felt it was time to take me outside...

I began walking with my crutches outside three days ago...

If I could only explain to you the feeling of gratitude...

The feeling of strength...

The feeling of freedom...

And then to witness the magnificent hawks and the beauty of the colors I had never witnessed before...

A celestial gift, this was, all for me...

Just last week I had been in the emergency room...

And today...I went for a walk around the block...

I talked with many delightful people...

I soaked in the fantabulous sunshine...

And, I realized, "oh my, Halloween is coming upon us," for many houses were decorated...

This invoked many a happy memories with my sons...

How every year we would home make our decorations for this season...

Oh, and the pumpkins...the pumpkin patches...what bliss!!! ;)

Fall is always an astonishing time of year...

Harvest...Falling colorful leaves...Halloween...Dia de Los Muertos...Day of the Dead...well, at least for the Latin community, and I am certain, in many other forms around the world...

Fall is a reminder of beautiful life...yet life...also fading...

A great time to reflect upon the "circle of life"...

So today, for me, was a day of beauty, of strength, of freedom, of warm memories of the heart, of letting go, of moving forward...

My heart, my leg, my soul, and my body are healing...

I thank you most gracious Red Tail Hawks for bestowing upon me you glory...your freedom...your feeling...

Your feeling of soaring...

My dearest beloved family of BeamtheLightBeamtheChange, I thank you all once again for allowing me to share with all of you, my life. I completely bare my being. I am eternally grateful for your reading, and with any glimmer of hope, I can offer some gifts upon all of you. Life is forever changing, and to be able to accept, and embrace the changes, and challenges, along with the gifts, is a very important part of our humanity.

Please remember, that after a storm, there always follows the light...

My love, my light, and my heart to all of you always, Maria

Maria Juarez Beam

Musical Selection: Felix Baumgartner "I Believe I Can Fly"

http://youtu.be/QTahrYXCChI

SOAR TO YOUR HIGHEST POTENTIAL...PAZ Y AMOR POR SIEMPRE...

Some Days Tears Simply Flow...

There are some days that tears just flow...

The reasons could be many...

Sometimes I try to stop their flow, yet they cascade anyhow...

I haven't been writing so much lately for I have not been feeling well...

Whoever would have thought that a broken leg could alter one's world so...

I was so strong and I felt on top of the world before the fall...

Now, I feel weak, tired, and I have lost much weight...

And, the weight of the world weighs heavily upon my heart and upon my shoulders...

I cry just watching the song "So Soon" from the last post...

I cry because I still am unable to walk on my own...at least for the time being (this too shall change & pass) :)

I cry because I have so much I wish to accomplish despite my many challenges...

I cry because I wish so much with my heart and my hands to make this world a better place, at least for a few...

I cry because I miss my children so far away and life has not been the same since they've left...

Yet, I must remain strong despite the tears...

Actually, I feel that tears are our cleansing tool...

Our healing balm of saline...

Will more tears flow today...

Yes, I am sure...

There is much inside of me that needs to be cleansed...refreshed...

So that I can carry on...

So that I can continue to be strong...

For all of you...for my children...for the world...and for me...:)

The Soul Would Have No Rainbow If The Eyes Had No Tears...

Native American Proverb

 

 

 

 

 

My love to all as always...Maria

 

Maria Juarez Beam

 

Musical Selection:

 

Clay Aikon: "I Will Carry You"

 

http://youtu.be/_bnwyxj4hAg

 

 

 

15 Years of War...Honoring Civilians...Alslam Alykom

Could we stop for one moment...

As a human being...

To conceive the possibility of peace as part of our daily existence...?

Day after day goes by and there is no news of any war...

Of any massacres or Drone strikes...

Of the hastening of bringing our soldiers home who are forever transformed...

Of civilian casualties in seemingly endless waging war whose lives are also forever transformed...

Can you close your eyes...feel it...envision this concept...?

Peace as a concept...peace must become our reality...

I have been posting about our soldiers upon the eve of the eleventh year of war commencing with Afghanistan. Now, I would like to present the great human suffering, the lives lost, the destruction of the high price of war. It is not something we care to truly think about, yet it is a reality for thousands upon thousands of innocents, and this too, must be honored.

I did some research to get some statistics of the lives lost...not an easy task. I also will post links to websites that show the destruction, the devastation, and the lives lost in our waging of war. I will also post some pictures to honor the civilians killed, many of whom are children. Simply imagine if you can what it must feel like for the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Bahrain, and the other countries that become engulfed in "our conflicts." I find it terribly heartbreaking and so unnecessary. So, what I feel I can do to help contribute to peace, and the ending of this madness right now, is my voice...May peace be with you...Alslam alykom...Que la paz este con todo el mundo...

Afghanistan: Estimated 12,500-14,700 Civilian deaths

http://costsofwar.org/article/afghan-civilians

Iraq: Documented deaths since the Iraq War 109,073-119,174

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

Pakistan: Hard to get a correct amount. Sites vary. One site stated there could be more civilian casualties that Afghanistan, Raw Replay states 774 since 2004, and another site states 2,464-3,145.

Pakistan suffers from incessant U.S. and NATO Drone strikes. Aid workers are subject to strikes in helping the victims and family members and friends attending funerals of their lost loved one are as well. Learn the truth behind the stikes please. From Mother Jones "...But the Times, citing "counterterrorism officials," also reported that the U.S. classifies all military-age men in a drone strike zone to be militants, unless their innocence is proven after the attack."

http://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/drones

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/08/u-s-drone-strikes-killed-775-civilians-since-2004-report/

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/drone-warfare-obama-counterterrorism

https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/commentisfree/2012/sep/25/study-obama-drone-deaths


Yemen: stpeteforpeace.org gives deaths by years this is what I was able to count, 241, yet who truly knows.

http://stpeteforpeace.org/yemen.html

Here are two other links that I have provided for futher reading regarding war and its horrific affects as well as as one with some very good information from Wiki.

http://costsofwar.org/article/civilians-killed-and-wounded

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_intervention_in_the_Middle_East

I am so sad with all of my heart and all of my soul...

I can only pray we become humane enough to put an end to war once and for all. I send my love and blessings to all who have lost their loved ones to these senseless wars, conflicts, insanity...Alslam alykom...Paz y Amor, Maria

Maria Juarez Beam

Musical Selection: Maher Zain "So Soon"

http://youtu.be/sXN7PjP08To

I dedicate this entire post to my most beloved brother Mohamed...Shokran mahobe akh...

"I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war." Albert Einstein

                                                              "All war is deception."
                                                                        Sun Tzu


"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." Dwight D. Eisenhower


         MAY LOVE & PEACE RAIN UPON ALL OF THIS BEAUTIFUL WORLD...MJB

Mother Teresa

Young Girl Big Hopes...

It is late at night. The television is on. It is one of those nights you have decided to relax. You have your favorite show on, oh it is so good...next to appear is an infomercial, or shall I say, a plea. You know, those with a soft-spoken gentleman asking for a monthly donation for a poor child in a Latin American Country. The visions of the conditions of squalor appear endless. Somehow, those visions, the advertisement itself can make one uncomfortable...

One of the most significant and memorable experiences of my life was one that happened many years past, but it is an experience that I will never forget. It is one, which remains so vivid...so powerful today, just as it did forty years ago now. Forty years seems as if an eternity has passed, yet I recall every detail inside of my being. I had the opportunity to view first hand the conditions of poor children in a Latin American Country before there were ever infomercials of that I just described. I had been forever changed by just one day on a journey to Peru. I also made a personal promise.

Peru, the name of this South American country alone, evokes a sensation of mystery and magic. Actually, given the gift of stepping on the soil of this enigmatic, colorful land, one soon discovers wonders beyond conception.

I was in the sixth grade when my grandparents asked me if I would like to go and visit my uncle, a Catholic Priest, who was living in Lima, Peru. I most excitedly, yet graciously answered with an emphatic and astounded, "YES", please...:) My class had actually been studying the land of Peru as well as the ancient Incas. Since I have always had a great love for history and adventure, to have the glorious privilege of being asked if I wanted to go to this country, was literally, a dream come true. (At the end of this story, I will share a bit of why my grandparents asked me out of many, many grandchildren)

I remember disembarking from the plane. I was entering a new, foreign land; what exhilaration I contained in each breathe. What amazement within my eyes. We landed in the capital, Lima, a city gigantic beyond any place I had ever been previously. There were massive amounts of people of many beautiful colors and many backgrounds. The smells in the air were so amazingly unusual, so delightful. The Colonial Spanish Architecture appeared to me as intricate, yet grand, beautiful, and so stunningly detailed. I WAS IN COMPLETE AWE! My senses had never feasted upon such delights.

As we came upon the edge of the city, I also, for the first time, witnessed desperate poverty. The type of poverty I had read about, the type of poverty I would hear about in church, and the type my parents would talk about, but I could simply not imagine or fathom. I viewed face up, the true conditions of "third-world" poverty before the term came into mainstream fruition. I walked through hundreds of shanty cardboard, tin makeshift living quarters, traipsed in the mud of the walkways. I watched the faces of shining, innocent children playing with beaming, yet solemn smiles, in piles of garbage in piles of refuse.

A person can wonder if a child actually does live in such bleak and impoverished conditions. At the age of eleven, I had the striking truth delivered straight to the threshold of my consciousness. It was from this turning point on that forever changed my view of life, my view of the world in which I lived. I realized that I could never take anything for granted again. I felt within my entire heart, within my complete soul that I had much to be grateful for. I decided on that one day, that I would do all that I could to combat poverty, injustice, and inequality in all of its forms, in all of its manifestations.

It is late at night. I am watching television. A gentleman appears making a plea asking for help for Latin American children living in squalor conditions. I can no longer afford to be uncomfortable. That one day, forty years ago, transformed my life;; it is now my time to deepen the change for the lives of others.

Thank you.

This is actually a speech I wrote several years back when I was working on my AA Degree. I wanted to share, especially with my Facebook Family, since I have been posting much regarding the state of our world. Many who have known me for a very long time, know that I have been a champion for justice for a very long time. I just thought before I get really into my series of peoples and groups around the world that are oppressed and are in of great need, that I would share a bit of background about my early self so that you can have a deeper understanding of who I am. The "Activist," Maria...:)

I can actually say that before I went to Peru, I had this strange little girl heart that somehow knew that there were many people in need. I used to send fifty-cent pieces to my uncle starting when I was about four or five (trust me back then a fifty-cent piece went a long way even here...can you imagine in Peru?) This is the reason my grandparents asked me to go with them. They were quite proud of their granddaughter and it was actually my grandparents who taught me so much about giving. Also, so many people were asking my uncle who is this little girl from the United States who cares so much about us...he would tell them about me in his sermons. I was treated with such love and kindness...

I share this not, to "toot my own horn," I only share so that all of you here at BEAMTHELIGHTBETHECHANGE just have an idea of how long I have been a champion for those in need. I may not have all of the answers to solve all the problems, but I do know my heart and my heart serves me well...

 

"BE A BEAMING RAY OF GOLDEN LIGHT THAT TOUCHES ALL WHOM YOU MEET"

Maria Juarez Beam

 

Musical Selection: Mana: Justicia, Tierra, y Liberdad from their album "Revolucion de Amor"

Justice, Land, and Freedom from their album Revolution of Love...

 

LET LOVE RAIN...REIGN...AND TRANSFORM...PAZ Y AMOR!