Peace Allowance

Why don’t we have peace on our planet? I believe we don’t have peace because we don’t allow ourselves to have it.

Who schedules your life? Who makes your commitments? Who says yes and no for you? Who allows everything that happens in your life?

What if peace needed only that we allow it to be?

I checked the Oxford English Dictionary for an etymology of the verb allow, and it surprised me. It comes from Latin roots meaning all praise. What we allow, we, in essence, praise, accept, commend, welcome. We say yes to whatever it is.

Old-fashioned manners included the phrase, “Allow me.” It might be said as one held a door open for someone, or proffered an arm for support. It meant, accept my help.

Remember earning an allowance? Mine was fifty cents a week for a very long time. It represented reward or praise for chores in my case.

Dear one, what if peace is only as far away as our allowance of it? Might I offer a suggestion? Allow me. Hold peace as your highest value this week, the thing that’s the most important to you for one week. Make all your choices, appointments, yesses and noes, based on this question: Will it increase my peace?

On Friday, give yourself a peace allowance and let someone else cook dinner. We’ll be that much closer.