Willie Nelson

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

by Patty Ann Smith

I admire Willie Nelson for so many reasons, and one of those reasons is his awe for the mysteries of life. His book “The Tao of Willie”, offers us a huge amount of wisdom from many profound lessons he has learned from …in the publisher’s words…”decades of hard knocks and good bounces.”

Willie is inspiring and this is a real “feel good” book.

In the 6th century B.C., the “Tao te Ching” was written in China by the philosopher Lao Tzu. This ancient sacred text of wisdom has become a model throughout the centuries for humanity to conduct itself. Lao Tzu spent his whole life writing this one book and it is still revered in the world today.

With Willie’s awe for the mysteries of life, and his great artistry, creativity, and love for this planet ~ he is probably the ONLY person who could give us such a useful, practical guide to using the Tao in everyday life in the 21st century A.D.

“The Tao of Willie” guides us through a deep look into ourselves. And, via the “Willie Way”, the heaviness in our lives gets lifted and we become more lighthearted.

Through laughter and making us feel more free and loved, Willie shows us “the way” to happiness in our own hearts.

I cannot tell you what this book will mean to you, because that will be your own experience. But, I’m pretty sure if you take the time to read it ~ you’ll be glad you did!

I believe “Willie’s Way” is a very good way to look at life. For anyone who, like myself, has felt oppressed and had to struggle to flower into who they really are ~ this book of Willie’s has the keys that lead to the truest of happiness which can only be found inside our own hearts.

My connection to Willie and the Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute has been the single most monumental change in my life that has enabled me to become more of who and what I really am.

And, that’s because of the gracious, loving, and warm encouragement for freedom of expression that Willie offers…and is priceless!

Before I read “The Tao of Willie”, I thought I had an open heart. But after reading it, I realized that a truly open heart is an endless stream of peace.

-Here are just a few samples of “Willie’s Wisdom” from his book, “The Tao of Willie”.

-If you care too much, you’ll screw up every time.

-I believe that we ignore the law of love at the peril of our own lives and the planet we share.

-A life in the way of the Tao means living in harmony with the world and those who inhabit it. Sharing that harmony has taught me so much, and it all started with the musical home I was born into back in Abbott.

-…. one thing I learned is that the mind, rather than being the master, should be the servant of the heart.

-Everything in creation must be true unto itself.

-I’ve always loved morning glories, those lovely flowering vines that open their blossoms with the morning light. A morning glory knows nothing of the night. By day, the mystical, twinkling firefly is only a flying bug. Though they are connected by place, they are separated by time and know nothing of each other. In their own way, each is a mystery…

-…Meditation…. It’s about just being.
Sit. Listen. Breathe. Dream. Renew.

-I’ve noticed that most people spend too much time worrying about what someone else is doing or saying.

-Letting your thoughts think you into a corner, why not just let them go?

-…the incredible secret…is the word now. It is the understanding that happiness exists at just one time. And that time is now.

-The easiest mistake on earth is to forget to appreciate what you have right now.

-When the panic ~ among other things ~ hits the fan…. once you admit that you can’t control everything, then it becomes clear that sometimes you just have to let things happen…Instead of trying to make everything happen, I just get out of the way and let it happen. That’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned, and once I did it, my relationships with everybody improved.

-There is no normal. There’s only you and me….So, if I’m not normal and you’re not normal and they’re not normal ~ why in the blue blazes do we all spend so much time pretending we are?

-There is only one map to the journey of life, and it lives within your heart.

-I find it curious that wherever you go on earth, the fundamental teachings remain the same. Underlying everything is the simple idea of love.

-Doing things because they are the right thing to do ~ not just because of some tangible gain you’ve planned ~ will ultimately reward you in better ways than money, power, comfort, or fame.

-Willie says that it is not unfulfilled ambitions that keeps him going ~ but, what he does and who he is.

Be There:)
…. and as Willie might say: ALOHA!:)

~ Patty Ann Smith

Patty Ann Smith, our guest blogger, is an artist who devotes her life to creating peaceful solutions. Please check out her sites:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=pattyannsmith

http://www.hope4america.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/pattyannsmith

Share This

Tell Congress it’s Time to Stand up for America’s Horses

Washington, DC (January 24, 2008) – When my friend, Willie Nelson, asked me to join him, his family, and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) in the fight against the slaughter of American horses for human consumption overseas, I said “Absolutely, count me in.” Truth be known, my sister and I had already been doing what we could to protect horses from slaughter for quite some time; one more case of great minds thinking alike.

My family shares our 160-acre ranch in Oklahoma with many horses. I also have a 280-acre racehorse training facility nearby that is equipped with a 7/8 mile track with barns, paddocks, walkers, etc. My sister, Tonni, and I keep as many as 200 horses at any given time. A lot of them are retired and brought up here to live out their lives.

If we get too many, we sell some at auction. However, when we do sell horses, we put a $3,000 reserve on them so that they are too expensive to purchase for slaughter. If we bring one home that doesn’t sell, my sis will work until she finds that horse a home, no exceptions. Sometimes we’re faced with the tough decision to have our vet come out to put a suffering horse down. The idea has never occurred to me to send my horse to slaughter as a form of euthanasia, because slaughter isn’t euthanasia.

My heroes have always been horses. The reason we take such good care of our horses is because we respect them tremendously. Historically, the horse has earned this respect by accepting the two-legged rider onto his back, fighting in our battles, and helping to settle the frontier. As Winston Churchill once said, “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”

We owe a great deal of thanks to horses, and now is the time for us to express that gratitude, because they need our help more than ever. More than 100,000 American horses were slaughtered in the U.S. last year and served up in fancy European restaurants. Texas and Illinois have outlawed the practice, closing down the only three foreign-owned horse slaughterhouses on U.S. soil.

This is great news, but our fight is far from finished. These companies are taking American horses on trucks several hundred miles without food or water across U.S. borders to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada where the slaughter is especially brutal.

The federal American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S. 311/H.R. 503) would close this route by banning the transport of American horses across U.S. borders for the purpose of slaughter. It will also stop the slaughter industry from simply choosing another state to set up shop.

It’s time for Congress to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act into law.

Join me, Willie, Bo Derek, John Corbett, the Animal Welfare Institute and over 75% of Americans in our effort to protect America’s horses.

Call your elected representatives in Washington, D.C. today and ask them to co-sponsor the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S. 311/H.R. 503).

For more information on horse slaughter and how you can help make a difference for our horses visit

http://www.awionline.org/.

To find your elected representatives, visit

http://www.compassionindex.org/.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Chris Heyde – 703-836-4300

Share This

Willie Nelson sings “Jimmy’s Road” from the very rare collector’s DVD “Peace” by Willie Nelson with Family and Friends.

“Jimmy’s Road” is the first of three videos on the Willie Nelson Peace DVD, a rare collector’s item.

The song “Jimmy’s Road,” produced in 1968 and issued as a B-side in 1969, found new life when released in 1991 on “Who’ll Buy My Memories? (The I.R.S. Tapes)” and on the 1993 “Willie Nelson: A Classic and Unreleased Collection.”

This video version was first released in 2003 on the rare Willie Nelson Peace DVD mentioned above. On this DVD it is followed by “Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?” by Willie Nelson and “The War Prayer” by Mark Twain featuring Willie Nelson with family and friends.

What a sad commentary on the United Stated of America that since achieving global military dominance at the end of WWII there has been repeated times when “Jimmy’s Road” has again become appropriate.

Every generation learns in hindsight the futility of violence and the truth of who violence serves. When will we have a generation that perceives that the only worthwhile path includes peace?

Wouldn’t now be a good time?

Unfortunately too many healthy, vital, capable and loved human beings die or become disabled before they have a chance to understand the shortsighted pointless results of violence.

Now is a good time for “A Peaceful Solution.”

Vote back America.

Wouldn’t now be a good time to find out how well the United States system of politics expresses the will of the people? If ever the government of the United States of America needed the guidance of We the People now has certainly become the time.

We’ve seen a couple of strange presidential elections recently. Wouldn’t now be a good time to test the electoral system? Look around you. Certainly you can see that most people prefer peace.

If our government runs off and commits acts of violence in our name that we would never desire, then who is to blame? Who has the power to peacefully redirect the government of the United States if not We the People?

Peace is possible.

We can begin an era of peace that will last for thousands of years as humanity redirects its resources toward solving global problems.

Whether the Peak Oil Crises is real or just a fabrication to drive up profits becomes irrelevant when half the people in the world depend upon oil based fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides to grow their food. And most food depends upon oil fueled vehicles to plant, harvest, process and take the food to market.

Regardless of the cause of Global Warming, Global Warming has become an undeniable fact. The loss of fresh water through both the loss of glaciers and salinization of coastal fresh water supplies by rising oceans levels creates huge challenges. The displacement of millions of people by the rising oceans will create even more problems.

Now is the time for peace.

The rise in global background radiation parallels the global rise in cancer. The nuclear accidents we’ve had at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island pale to those in our certain future as satellites return to Earth. Just two such satellites disintegrating in our atmosphere could cause as much damage as Chernobyl and there are over fifty such satellites in decaying orbits.

Plastic never goes away. Sure, it breaks down in to smaller and smaller pieces but it is always plastic. Plastic has no uses in any life process. Tons of plastic ends up in the oceans and there it enters the food chain of the entire planet.

Plastic mimics estrogen but performs none of estrogen’s necessary functions. This could be the cause behind the global rise of obesity and thousands of other detrimental health issues. Twenty percent of human males are functionally sterile. A species dies when it can no longer reproduce.

Yet we have our government expending nonrenewable resources to continue the old patterns and practices that have led to our current situation. Is this the degraded future we wish to hand to subsequent generations? Is this the future we wish to be responsible for creating?

Violence got us here. Violence will not get us out.

Oil got us here. Oil will not get us out.

We must transform the human species. If we don’t do it intentionally and timely then nature will decide we are unworthy and allow our own stupidity to end things for us.

Things cannot go on like this.

Face it, all our most pressing problems are the ones we caused, or at least allowed to be caused in our name. Wise people through the centuries have warned us and indicated the corrections that must be made.

We no longer have the luxury of passing the buck. If humanity is to survive and with any quality of life then we must end our violent ways now.

Peace is the foundation upon which our extended future can be built.

Anything less dooms our species.

Are the last of the human race destined to die as pathetic diseased mutated creatures unable to bring forth another generation on a barren planet stripped of all life giving resources or will we stop the madness now and start solving the problems that really matter?

The answer to this last question is literally in your hands.

Is it to be a glorious future full of promise or “Jimmy’s Road” for the entire human race?

For more of the Willie Nelson story behind “Jimmy’s Road” and an in-depth analysis of the Willie Nelson Peace DVD see the article Alive and Singing the Truth in The Texas Observer by Thomas Palaima, Dickson Centennial Professor of Classics, University of Texas at Austin.

Share This

University of Texas Project on Conflict Resolution honored Willie Nelson for his work for peace on Oct. 19th, 2007.

Part 2 - Professor Madeline Maxwell presents the award, Willie Nelson accepts.

Camera work by Amy Nelson

“Tonight we recognize and thank Willie Nelson for his inspiration at Bridging Divides and seeking Peaceful Solutions. Willie Nelson is widely recognized as one of America’s most enduring cultural icons. In Life and Art, Mr. Nelson symbolizes the nobility of the common man. His advocacy on behalf of a myriad of causes springs from a deep well of compassion. As a musical crusader for peace, not only is he a caretaker to the underprivileged and dispossessed, but a voice of reason. His contributions to the common good and good time music remain a singular achievement. My we all leave tonight inspired to work for constructive conflict and peaceful cooperation.”

Ceremonies such as these help to remind us of the greatness each of us are capable of. They can inspire us to aspire for similar greatness. We should all rise to the occasion.

And we can.

Willie Nelson wrote “A Peaceful Solution” to make it easy. At a basic level “A Peaceful Solution” may be accompanied by only two chords, Am and E7. And Willie Nelson has recorded several versions of “A Peaceful Solution” for us to make available here.

Hear Willie sing it A cappella. MP3 file format

Hear Willie sing it Reggae style. MP3 file format

Hear Willie sing it Jazz style. MP3 file format

Hear Willie sing it Live. MP3 file format

Hear the Willie Nelson Family sing it. MP3 file format

Willie Nelson grants you permission to use these recordings in videos. Or, make a video with your own version of “A Peaceful Solution.” Or, record your version and send that to us.

The point is to pass the message along, musically.

You can be part of a Willie Nelson peace project. You can be part of something exemplary of his award. You can join Willie Nelson in working for peace.

When you participate in “A Peaceful Solution” project we will write an article featuring you here on this website. We like letting everyone know how this project grows.

You never know how big this can get or where it will be heard.

As nice as it is that the University of Texas honors Willie Nelson for his work it is also important to know that Willie Nelson has not stopped working for peace. Willie Nelson asks you to help him by passing along “A Peaceful Solution.”

Willie Nelson doesn’t do this to win awards. He does this for the day that such awards will no longer be necessary.

You can help him.

Part 1 - A Peaceful Solution dedication to Willie Nelson by Lana, Susie, Paula, Amy and Micah Nelson

Share This

The University of Texas Project on Conflict Resolution honored Willie Nelson for his work for peace on Oct. 19th, 2007.

Part of the celebration involved several members of Willie’s family singing “A Peaceful Solution” for him. This included Amy Nelson who inspired the song.

Amy also performed the editing on this video with the camera work by Willie’s grandson, Anthony Brewster.

This begins to show how a personal family story can reach out and touch people all over the world. It all begins with and continues through an unbroken string of personal connections.

Personal connections require the commitment of the individuals to seeing the message communicated and passed on. In this way every individual becomes important and essential.

While this may seem fragile, somehow human nature always finds a way to perpetuate the best our species discovers. The person-to-person connection encompasses both strengths as well as weaknesses.

It is the human connection that we must rely upon in the end.

Everyone who participates in this project becomes a link in an unbroken chain of humanity stretching forward to the time when we will see a peaceful resolution.

A big thank you for everyone who participated in Willie Nelson’s “A Peaceful Solution” project.

As long as the message of a peaceful resolution continues to be passed on then peace will triumph in the end. All it takes is the individual personal commitment of individual human beings.

And the success of this project shows in the expanding circles of people who record their version or make a video. Each new interpretation has emerged out of a personal connection.

So as each person has heard and understood the message, they have in turn offered it in their unique expressive style.

The process is the proof. The proof is the process.

Happy Holidays and Season’s Greetings.

And if during this time of joy and fellowship you happen to sing a few songs, think about making one of them “A Peaceful Solution.”

Share This