Usha Gokali Gandhi

“We have only one world. We have only one home. This garden called earth is ours alone to cherish and keep or hurt or destroy, to shadow with sorrows or brighten with joys.”

This is how the song “Cherish This Beautiful Earth” begins. The words and music was written by Gregory Berg of Carthage College. The song was commissioned for the closing ceremony of “Circles of Peace” and first sung tonight. The main speakers at this event of poetry, dance and music on this International Peace Day was my friend Prasad and Usha Gandhi Gokani, the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, both from India.

Ms. Gandhi, an elderly woman tired form the long journey and time zone changes, gave a quiet but passionate plea for peace, using the lessons she learned from her grandfather. The fundamental lesson was how true peace begins with change of selves. She spoke of Gandhi’s words: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Prasad in his normal eloquence reflected on some of these lessons and made them personal and updated. He taught by stories that related the principles of Gandhi to everyday life, like taking on suffering as the way of nonviolence.

On the way home I was delayed by a serious accident on the highway. It slowed me down. Now I realize this is what I must do with my own life, slow down to enjoy “this garden called earth” and to reflect on how “to be the change I want to see in the world.”

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