40K for 40 days: Day 40 - Last Day!

Day 40 of the "40K for 40 Days" blog series during our Martin Luther King 40 days of Peace Campaign on the Charter's blog and through social media. 

Day 40! Whew! What a whirlwind! If you read one or more blog posts, watched our videos on social media, or felt something with anything we put out there to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. through this exploration of Inner and Outer Peace, through 40 days and 1600 km, I encourage you to let us know! We are trying to build a community virtually. We are hoping we inspire you to look deeper into what peace means and how we can work for it in our lives and the lives of those that are less fortunate than us. A big thanks to our biker, Shane, for proposing the idea, and for the thoughtful process he went through for us to explore with him.

Martin Luther King is a huge inspiration for our work. The way he saw the world, the problems with the systems that still exist to this day that govern our societies, and the outlook and viewpoints of what he saw as a worthy community to fight for and live for, are vital pillars of compassionate work.

It is when we put ourselves in somebody else's shoes, truly feel their pain, and take action to end that pain, that we are exercising compassion. Martin Luther King Jr. did this work until the end of his life. Compassion is a fierce force that even governments and oppressive systems will do anything to stop, even to the extent of ending someone's life.

Compassion is power. Compassion can change the oppressive outcomes we are currently seeing in our society.
Join us in this work. There's so much you can do.

Read Day 1 here to learn the story behind this series!

You can reach us via all our social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, or via email at .

With love,

- Felipe 

Day 40 Inner & Outer Peace, +40k for 40 Days 

Last Day!

The journey of exploring 40 ks for 40 Days has finally come to a natural sense of closure. On this final day, it is certainly all making a lot more sense to me than on day one when it felt like there was a long road ahead and so many questions, topics, and areas of inner and outer peace to explore, while moving my body, my mind and challenging my perspectives.

Instead of finishing this final day by cycling, I integrated a celebration of friendship, solidarity, connection with one another, and nature and hope, that I was invited to. 

I joined a very special wedding celebration back in the garden county of Ireland between two very close friends of ours who decided to bring movement and nature into their day. We walked 20k together along a spectacular and historic route and shared stories, optimism, energy, and hope.

It felt completely appropriate and like a perfect way to round off this challenge while thinking about interdependence, systems, community, and ways to look to nature, to ancient wisdom for assistance, guidance, and ways to bring more peace into our lives from inside out and outside in.

Do I feel like I've answered all my questions and curiosities about peace during my 40-day challenge? No. 

I feel the need to keep moving and keep exploring, but I also feel very grateful to have gone on this journey and for the assistance of those around me to allow me the space and support to do this. First, my family, who have given me space to get out each day and move my 40ks for 40 days, then my team at the Charter for Compassion, who have been fantastic and encouraging and great at following me around and posting my blogs and finally, for the inspiration and guidance to all the people that have been involved in my 20 years plus, exploration of peace.

I should also point out that a lot of the resources for days 30-38 have come from a program that I am a facilitator of called Compassion Integrity Training or CIT, and I am thankful to have been able to use this program to learn and connect with so many people over the past 5 years. 

-Shane O'Connor