‘Peace House Community Journal’ Archives
Peace House Community: What Price?
Marti Maltby By MARTI MALTBY I just came from a meeting of the Native American Unsheltered/Opioid Crisis Response group. We discussed the need for more messages encouraging people not to use drugs, rather than focusing on using drugs safely. The harm reduction approach (helping people use drugs safely to reduce the negative consequences of drug use – like death – until a drug user is ready to quit drugs altogether) has its place, but by itself it limits the opportunities someone has to free themselves from addiction. When someone decides they want to stop using drugs entirely, they need a pathway towards that goal. As with any other vice, from overeating to losing one’s temper in uncontrollable rages, reducing the problem is good, but overcoming it is better. At the same meeting, someone mentioned the test strips that allow a drug user to check the drugs they are going to use to see if they contain fentanyl. Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and has caused [...]
PEACE HOUSE COMMUNITY: Finding Peace
By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby With one day before the deadline for this article, I can’t think of anything to write about. So, I ask one of Peace House Community’s members what topic I should tackle. “How do you find peace?” he responds. Philosophers, sages, mystics, and self-help gurus have been pondering that question for centuries, and I’m supposed to cover it in 500 words?! It’s a good question though. Peace, tranquility, stillness … whatever word you want to use, it is an elusive but vitally important quality. We all need to experience it at some point to stay healthy. Many of us need a lot of it, while others seek it out only when they have a migraine, but either way, it is indispensable. I think humanity has spent so much time thinking about peace, in part, because finding peace is such an individual endeavor. Each person has to discover their own ways of settling themselves. More than that though, each person has to develop new ways as their situations [...]
Silence, Please
Marti Maltby By MARTI MALTBY I’ve recently been reminded of the value of silence, or at least having a break from all the noise that assaults us each day. With so much negativity in the air, it can be difficult not to get infected, not to become judgmental, not to lash out or over-react, not to get overwhelmed, and not to break down. Silence, having the space to think and regroup and nurture oneself, is an antidote to everything that comes at us. I use the word “antidote” because the hostile attitudes that are becoming more common pass from person to person and infect each individual, causing damage that is sometimes irreversible. We don’t just need a break, we need something that can heal the infection and inoculate us against it in the future. I rediscovered silence by accident. I was driving home from work and couldn’t find anything on the radio I liked, so I turned the noise off. When I arrived home and found I was calmer than I had been for several days, I [...]
