OMG. A few weeks ago, I was asked to speak at TEDx Asheville. I nominated myself months ago, hoping and also frightened to be chosen. I’m going to speak about The Earth Pledge of Allegiance. Honored doesn’t truly describe the feeling I have. It is more than that. It is a dream showing itself in a different manner than I had expected and planned for. To make God laugh, tell him or her your plans. It’s funny when things start happening that you’ve dreamed about. For instance, my son now lives in my town. I didn’t dare think it was really going to happen and now it has, along with his little family. But you read about that in a prior post. Speaking to a crowd of people with the intention of inspiring them. That is a big piece of my dream. Another little fear I have about it is that it won’t happen again. Funny, right? Scared to do it. Scared not to. Scared it is a flash in the pan. A blip in my life. Perhaps I should change the name of my design studio. http://blipstudio.com A blip in time. blip is the first letters of my name…Breah Livolsi Parker. Or Barbra Livolsy Parker. I changed my name. I started out in this world as Barbara Jean Livolsy. I become Barbara Jean Livolsy Parker at 18. Became Barbra Parker at age 22. Finally Breah Livolsi Parker in 1999. Change the name. Change the way of being. Change how others view you.

I’ve always been a very nice person and I was also quite bitchy. I looked at the world with a negative eye. I complained or criticized more than I allow myself to remember. At one point I realized it and decided to practice positive. Flip the coin. Turn left instead of right. My family laughed at me and still I know they learned from me. When I divorced their father, they rejected the changes I began making. Where was their mother? I was told more than once “We just want our mother back.”

That was a tough one to swallow. I was their mother, couldn’t they see that? It was really that I couldn’t see that. I was wrapped up in finding myself. I wish I had done that before I had children. Would’ve saved everyone a lot of pain. But I didn’t. And so they witnessed their mother scrapping for her life, being attracted to all the “wrong” men, being fearful of my ability to pay my rent, losing my business over and over again. They also saw me do things like become an actor on the stage. Take up a new absolutely perfectly fitting business by saying yes to something I had never done before. Being a vegetarian. Not being a vegetarian. Smoking. Not smoking. And they have watched me age. I have watched me age. They have watched me come back to earth after flying every which way.

“When you come to the edge of all you know, you’re either given legs to stand on or wings to fly.”

And now I know how to use my wings to lift off in a purposeful direction. Along the way I have been given gifts. One of which is the Earth Pledge of Allegiance. I did not write it. I borrowed it from an anonymous source, given to me by Terry Deal, the environmental ed director for Evergreen Elementary School here in Asheville. I added “with Peace and LOVE for all” when I illustrated it for the second time. That time we launched a program called Peace and Love for All. Dot com. We set up a website, with curriculum and sales of the poster, bookmark and peace & love sticker. We were gifted a banner by a company whose name escapes me right now and I’ll find out and let you know later. We were gifted the printing of rain forest certified printed Earth Pledge posters. Personally I was gifted with a few people who were willing to trot off on this path with me. Michael Ashmore, Anna Booraem and Amy Ellisor. And of course Terry Deal.

So where is the program? Well, it is here today as I write. We are on the road to bringing awareness to children all over the world, as well as their parents and teachers, that we are stewards of this world, this planet, this Big Mama Earth. It is our job to bring peace to her. We have tapped into her soul. And we have violated it. Can we give back the lives of millions of beings, be they flora, fauna or the human version in the Gulf? We cannot and we CAN turn the ship around. It is turning. It is turning because of each one of us.

In making this Earth Pledge of Allegiance, we are saying we promise and keep that promise to be kind, be loving, be fair, be generous, be of service to all creatures…with the intent of PEACE and LOVE for ALL. No matter what. Trusting that from that place we change the world. We do it anyway. We change the world just by our very existence. Why not make it a positive one?

I pledge allegiance to the Earth

and the Flora…

the fauna…

and the Human Life

that it supports…

One Planet

indivisible, with

safe air, water and soil,

economic justice, equal rights, and

PEACE and LOVE FOR ALL.