When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.
                         ~ Peace Pilgrim (Peace Prophet, 1908-1981)

A Blessing of 2007 - A Vision of 2008
By Azim N. Khamisa

It is the New Year, a time to make resolutions and look forward, set goals and make plans for the next 12 months. So what resolutions have you made?

For me, January is a bittersweet month. It was the month when my son Tariq was so suddenly and tragically taken away. January 21st marks the 13th anniversary of his passing, and as the day approaches, his presence in my life intensifies. I am always with Tariq especially when I am in school talking to children. But this is the time of the year that his presence has a more intense quality. We are doing great work in his name and that feels good.

The good work completed in 2007 included these highlights:

• Over 70 public appearances and keynote speeches, traveling constantly. To name a few locations: New Mexico, Texas, Michigan, South Dakota, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, Washington, on into Canada.
• Australia (workshop) - an inspired woman chose to meet her father's killer, and two fathers and one mother who hadn't talked with their children for up to 10 years chose to reconnect again.
• Kansas prison (speech) - I looked into the eyes of one grateful inmate who expressed, "You don't look at us as if we are criminals." That was definitely a moving experience.
• Hansen Institute at UCSD - I worked with young leaders from various cultures to discuss the process of working together for peace.
• Tariq Khamisa Foundation - TKF has grown in two years from four employees to 16 employees, and is doing great - a testament to its Board and staff. Its Violence Impact Forum - an educational assembly before grade school children - increased to 32 sessions in 2007. One young boy, who made the choice to turn from a life of violence, received a standing ovation at a TKF event in November.
• Blacksburg, Virginia - At the home city of Virginia Tech, I had the chance to meet two parents who lost their children in the April massacre at the college. That was an honor.
• CANEI (Constant and Never Ending Improvement) - a program I created under the auspices of NYAP (National Youth Advocate Program) in order to help transform youth already struggling with gangs and violence - expanded to six cities this last year.
• From Forgiveness to Fulfillment - a follow-up book to the original From Murder to Forgiveness was published in November 2007.
• Secrets of a Bullet-proof Spirit - Another book on the way. This year, the publishing company Random House picked up the option to publish my next book I am currently writing along with Jillian Quinn.

It has been a phenomenal year. The vision for 2008 includes continuing the work with the children, creating more powerful products (CD's and DVD's) to assist others along their peaceful path, serving more in the corporate community in order to lead businesses onto the path of synergistic unity, and doing workshops and keynote speeches desired by a society desperate and hungry to find peace and freedom through the process of forgiveness and restorative justice.

All of this is done in the name of bringing about a more unified and peaceful world. You have my commitment to do all I can towards these ends. For my family, for my son Tariq, my daughter Tasreen, my grandchildren Shahin and Khalil, my son-in-law Mehrdad, for my friends ... all of you, all of us.

My gratitude to all of you individually for your love and support of this work. My very best wishes to you and your loved ones for a safe, prosperous, healthy, successful, joyous and a blessed 2008.

Many blessings,
Azim Khamisa