Saturday, March 26, 2011

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Peace is not an event, it is a practice


Peace is not the absence of war, but a position of mind

When each being’s position is, not only acknowledged and respected, but cherished as an essential part of a living whole

Where we are not honored for who we are, but for what we are becoming



Peace is not a noun, it is a verb

Peace is not an act, but an action

A practice of holding lightly the threads of connection so that we are not strangled by complacency, comfort, or stagnation



Along with peace comes the freedom, not to be alive, but to live

To live in the depth of every moment, without the distractions of a fear rooted in the invitations of envy

Of the mythology that we are somehow missing out on something we should have, or are other than we are supposed to be



So, too comes the freedom to experience the-ever-evolving-balance of living and dying, of dissonance and resonance that unfolds all around us, like the dance of the tides or the coming of spring and the passing of winter



Peace is not an idealized utopia

But a practice of living, manifest all around us

As when concrete buckles at the persistent pressure of a tree root, or when a bolder yields to the constant flow of a stream



There is no wining or losing

Nothing to be gained or profited

Each has time for being and changing



We die not because we lose life, but because we have life

And in the having, it must slip away

But when we finally grasp that our consciousness is but a part of a larger interconnected whole, we can know that one existence is simply a single filament of an infinite eternal tapestry that bares us all



Peace is not a distant dream, but as close as our willingness to, once again, accept our eternal unity with all that is, and all we are



Peace is a choice that we must make every moment of every day



Peace is in our breath, Peace is in our spirit, Peace is in our hands