She lives in New York but has changed the world. Without her John may not have been what he was. Peace would have had less a chance than it had; than it has. She’s Yoko Ono and I don’t know much about her really, but I love her.

Of course I do.

I love anyone who can suffer losing so much and still keep giving so much. When her lover, husband and friend—and father to her child—was killed, she could easily have curled up in pain and disengaged from the world.

Somehow she didn’t—even in the face of hostility, blame and ridicule.

Recently I hooked up with Yoko on Twitter because she was giving out such great snippets of, what I will call, Social Networking Installation Thoughts, Ideas and Contemplations. One of my favourites was:

“Try to say nothing negative about anybody for three days, for forty-five days, for three months. See what happens to your life.” YOKO (via Twitter)

Simple, powerful and very challenging if you watch too much television news. It seems like many people enjoy focussing our attentions on the negative. But if what we focus on expands then maybe it’s not the best perspective to take? Not what are people doing ‘bad’—what are people doing ‘good’?

Yoko, for one, is inspiring peaceful thinking and positive words.

I am happy to be reminded of a goal I have in life: to be somewhat in control of my mouth while I seek to understand the myriad sources of my motivations.

Thanks for the reminder, Yoko.

Yoko also had a hand in the second chapter of my novel, The Last Great Day. When the lead character, Henry Conroy walks into his Manchester cottage it is ‘Give Peace A Chance’ he hears and tries to ignore, as footage of the Montreal ‘Bed-In’ plays on the television. To me it was the perfect song to help establish Henry’s character (someone who doesn’t ‘get’ the long-haired hippy) and the period my story begins in.

‘Give Peace A Chance’ was originally credited as another Lennon/McCartney song. Later it was credited to Lennon only, and eventually Lennon admitted he had written the song with Yoko. While there is speculation as to why the truth of who co-wrote one of the most famous songs in the world, what I think is important is that Yoko is still going. She is still spreading her (and John’s) message of love, peace and all that it can do.

War is over if you want it.

And all that.

Peace.

♥♡

PS. Here is a link to Yoko singing ‘Remember Love’, the B-Side to the GPAC single.

Here is ‘Give Peace A Chance’…

To imagine peace click ♡