Be the Peace

"It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures." - John F. Kennedy

It is the International Day of Peace, sponsored by the United Nations and "devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples". It's also September 21, the Autumn Equinox, a day of balance when the Earth is equally ensconced in light and dark. To me, these ideas feel connected. When I am feeling balanced, when I have taken the time and energy to create and protect balance in my life, I am more able to be the peace I wish to see in the world. Peacefulness, after all, won't be created or sustained by nations or military forces. It is achieved through small but significant inner choices within the individual. It is accomplished through those individuals speaking up and banding together to illuminate new ways of thinking and being in the world.

So we ask ourselves:

Where am I intolerant, and how can I let go of that intolerance to be the openness and acceptance I wish to see in the world?

Where am I controlling, and how can I let go of that need to control to be the freedom I wish to see in the world?

Where am I angry, and how can I release that anger to be the love that I wish to see in the world?

Where am I withholding and in lack consciousness, and how can I release that sense of lack to be the abundance and generosity I wish to see in the world?

It seems to me that building a peaceful world is a process of putting down that which was never the truth. It's a process of realizing that someone has to go first, and that we are those someones. It's a process of recognizing that peace is not something we have, it's something we BE.