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More people are at peace than at war
The thing I liked best about Susan Skog’s Beliefnet Gallery, 10 Ways to Bring Peace to the World, is the structure of her title. So often our thoughts about peace are about how to bring the world to peace. Instead, she flips that on its head. How can we bring peace to the world?
It’s a great question because lots of us feel that peace is too big a task for one person. The logic goes: well, it doesn’t really matter whether I do what I can for peace or not because it’s such a big job that what difference can little ol’ me make? A big difference. A big, big difference. And it’s a lot of little ol’ mes taking daily time and making daily choices for peace that will add up to the Big Peace on Earth.
In a way, peace really can’t be done at the macro level because there it’s all just so much theory. And theory is just . . . well, too theoretical. Enter Susan Skog.
She begins with Martin Luther King, Jr., “As Martin Luther King, Jr. illustrated with his life, the entire world is lifted up by one individual choosing peace.” The entire world! Changed by one individual. One.
Then Skog quotes Susan Collin Marks paraphrasing Gandhi, “The only way we can make peace is for each of us to be the peace we want to see.”
Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh writes about being peace. It’s really a lifestyle, a way of living consciously, gently, openly, in the moment with whatever is happening.
Skog addresses anger, how to keep the vision, how taking care of ourselves creates peace. Then she writes my favorite sentence, “And remember, that more people are at peace than at war all across the earth. This is the story we need to focus on, broadcast, and amplify. The world is evolving and becoming a brighter place.”
More people on the planet are at peace than at war! I cannot begin to tell you the leap my heart took when I read those words. Of course! Of course, that’s true, but at that moment, for that day, I’d forgotten it.
Skog closes with a dream challenge, “Believe that peace can happen anytime, anyplace. Love the idea of living in harmony more than the idea of living in chaos. Spend time each day visualizing how your own life will be different when peace grows in all your relationships. Imagine your community cooperative and thriving. Imagine our country no longer warring with others. See our homes bathed in peace and prosperity. Feel the joy of that! Believe that a peaceful world is our destiny.”
Beliefnet is a wonderful resource for those who seek peace. God bless you, Susan Skog, for your delightful writing about peace.
Visit Susan Corso’s spiritual blog or subscribe to Seeds at www.susancorso.com.
Yes, Susan. Not only are more people at peace than are at war, but I have been pointing out to more pessimistic friends for years that that has been true throughout the histories we know. Our history books focus too much on the wars and battles (and the people who foment and prosper from them) and not enough on the peaceful many who were not involved or were victims. Distances and lack of communication kept the peaceful unaware of their true numbers: Now we know and may spread the word.
posted by goehms on 2/28/2009 4:44 pm