Delivered on July 28, 2015
PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK “FROM WOMEN’S HEARTS”
Dear authorities and friends present today, thank you very much for being here.
This event is, above all, the result of a feeling that comes from women’s hearts.
In more than one way this essay sums up what we are. The seven of us writing it as well as the remaining members of Global Peace Women had not met before. We came from different backgrounds, professions, and ways of dressing and speaking; we carried our daily concerns, some of them similar and others dissimilar.
We have come together based on the strength of the truth of the principles and universal spiritual and ethical values which our organization upholds and of the affection that has developed between us. This is proof that we are on the right track.
We should ask ourselves,
Is there anything above loving each other? Is there anything above understanding the unique value of each person?
Is there anything superior to mutual respect, honesty, loyalty?
What is the worth of ephemeral things when looking at the eternity of our lives’?
What can stand in the place of family, the very first love which teaches us how to live a proper life?
What can make us forget our responsibility to do good and reject evil?
How can we forget that the power of love comes from the warmth and brightness of our hearts and that this gives birth to the light that can illuminate the world and banish darkness?
When our hearts love and our conscience is awake we understand that living for the sake of others is the only path leading to harmony and peace and we take this path.
When writing this brief essay we might have had reservations because it is comprised of only a few pages but I thought about the gospel parable that tells us about the mustard seed:
“The tiniest seed may become the biggest tree.”
And without going back in time as much, Jose Marti also supports us with his prose:
“The essential truths of life fit in a hummingbird’s wing.”
We just hope that the authors have put a small seed in each chapter, just a milligram of those things that fit in a hummingbird’s wing.
Our deepest desire is that anyone reading these pages will be inspired to realize the good that lives inside of us all.
I wish to finish with a reference to what I wrote about:
I call myself a Catholic as most Uruguayans do when asked about their religion but I never go to church. I don’t consider this a merit but simply a fact of my life. But lately I have made friends with people of different origins and with different beliefs. I share a significant time of my day with many Jewish friends whom I love dearly.
I work for Global Peace Women with practicing Christians, Muslims and others who don’t follow any religion in particular but do believe in the values we support. This experience I have been going through has given meaning to a phrase which at the beginning I found hard to understand: One Family Under God. It is more than a far-off dream. It has nothing to do with theology or church. It is living reality.
There are things that we have in common such as the capacity to feel another’s pain and rejoice at a mother’s tenderness towards her child. And it is not by chance that we have characteristics that make us different, like flowers or fruits of different colors. There is a good reason behind it, which is making the garden where we all live and bloom more beautiful.
That garden we call our human family comes from one creator and its inevitable destiny is to live in peace, in a world where each of us has our place.
I would like to conclude by saying that:
We are an organization made up of women. We represent the femininity of the universe. If this femininity is denied the right to express itself fully and freely, the universe won’t be complete or well served.
Men, our partners in human adventure, must feel our calling. They must understand our nature, our worth and dignity, and we in turn must understand theirs.
Like no other, women are capable of feeling tenderness and embracing those who are unable to do so. We are able to forgive and to comfort when others can’t and to raise the voice of virtue. No one will extinguish these qualities nor our dreams of the common good.
We have to acknowledge that we can’t achieve better societies and peace in the world on our own, nor can it be achieved without us. It is now the time to assume our leadership and show the huge and unparalleled power of the love in women’s hearts.
You can find the Global Peace Women Magazing here.