Making peace
Boulder Creek Peace Vigil
source http://jeremysantacruz.livejournal.com/
Making peace is not just a matter of opposing war, though that is certainly an important
step. It’s not only standing up to tyranny, though that too may be necessary. It
is the creative application of Love to every part of our lives.
Peace must be made fresh every day. It starts in our own hearts, and spreads out
from there to those around us, to our community, to our country, to the whole world.
It is the great blessing that every one of us can give.
We don’t have to wait for our political “leaders” to support peace. They may be
the very last to do so. That is their problem; it is not ours. It is up to us, to
everyone on this planet who wants to see a better world, to lead the way.
Some Christians ask, “What would Jesus do?” That’s a very powerful question, and
He answered it Himself, with three words: “Love one another.” This Love is more
than a feeling, or a distant goal; it is compassion in action in your everyday life.
Each moment of our lives is new and precious. We will not pass this way again. We
cannot change the past, and it’s pointless to blame ourselves for missed chances.
But we can choose right now to do the best we can to create Peace and Love as we
go on, and let the old patterns that do not fit our new resolve fall by the wayside.
This takes courage. The alternative to Love is not hate; it is Fear. When people
live in fear, they feel justified in doing appalling things to one another. When
they think someone else is out to kill them, they try to kill the other first. And
this sickness spreads. We’ve seen it clearly in the Mideast, but it is really world-wide.
It infects every corner of our society.
Fear is very powerful. When we are afraid, we often strike out at the “cause” in
the outer world. But all that does, all it ever can do, is create even more fear.
The true source of our fear lies within us, and that is where we must treat this
grim disease. We have only one cure. Love is the only power that can overcome fear.
And when it does, it is called Courage.
How can we cultivate courage? It is like growing a tree; we plant the seed, then
we water it every day. The seed is our intention, our choice to do our best to bring
Love to every action of our day, to be conscious of Spirit in our lives. We water
it with our acts, each time we smile at a stranger, hug a child, give aid to an
elder. Each time we follow our hearts. And especially, each time we face, and face
down, our fears.
Take a practical example. You are walking down the street, and see a homeless person
sitting with a little sign, a sadly common sight these days. Many people pointedly
look the other way, and pretend “nobody” is there. If the person on the curb says
something to them, like “Spare change?”, they may become angry at the “intrusion”
into their lives. This is fear in action. We all know that in today’s job market,
in this uncertain economy, nobody is secure. We all have friends who were laid off,
lost their homes, perhaps their marriages, even their lives. The homeless are a
living reminder to the housed of what could be their own fate. And so many of us
try to distance themselves from this message. Their fear leads them into denial,
into anger at the messenger, into demands that the police remove this non-person
so that they can go on pretending that this could never happen to them.
It’s very obvious (or should be) that this fear, this denial, this anger are not
going to make this situation any better. Consider how the homeless person feels.
Already rejected by a heartless economic system, denied the fundamental human right
of shelter and likely of food, he (or she) is being told that they matter less than
dirt. That they are truly worthless and unwanted. This reinforces their own fears,
and so we have a downward spiral into spiritual darkness. Everyone loses.
Now consider another possibility. What happens if you stop a moment and give what
you can? You can’t afford it? Get real! Just the fifty cents you pay for a newspaper
would gladden a heart; the price of a cup of coffee would make their whole day.
And yours too. Choosing compassion over denial, love over anger, builds up your
own courage. Even if you are stony broke yourself, you can always give a smile,
a kind word, some acknowledgment that the person on the curb is really another human
being, not just a fearful reminder of hard times.
Life is full of opportunities to choose Love over Fear. When we begin to take them
whenever we come to them, we begin to change our lives. The Light comes into us,
because we have opened the door. The door of our heart. And that light fills every
part of our being. If we are sick, it will heal us. If we are poor, it will bring
us what we need to go on. What we give to others, we really give to ourselves, for
it returns to us manyfold. This is the most basic of all spiritual truths, found
in all religions, in every ethical system. It is the one sure path we can take to
higher ground.
When we practice compassion, when we look one another in the eye and smile, we are
making Peace. What we create on an individual level spreads, another spiritual law.
The peace that we make in our own hearts, the peace we make on Main Street, grows
in an upward spiral into the Light. It has the power to change our city, our county,
our state, our country, our whole world.
Our time here is short. We cannot postpone making peace to a better time, because
if we do not start making it soon, we may not have any more time. Look around you.
Do you see a world you can feel good about passing on to your children? Of course
not. It’s a bloody mess, and the only way out is to apply Love in action, to start
where you are, right now, this minute, to make the Peace that can save us all from
the sorry fate awaiting those who live in Fear. Have courage, and act with compassion.
When we follow our hearts, we are making Peace.
Dove
Copyright © 2003 Boulder Creek Peace Vigil. Please redistribute
this widely. Permission is granted to reproduce in all media provided the text is
unaltered, including this notice.