You can bring peace to the world
What strange new thing would you like to see in the world?
Most people would say, ‘How about some peace? That would be nice. Peace everywhere. Peace worldwide.’
Peace is not a feeling. Peace is a verb. It’s a doing word. Peace is an action.
In the last chapter of the children’s classic, The Secret Garden, by Francis Hodgson Burnett, are these words:
At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done – then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.
Big things grow from small things. A karri tree 60 metres high began as a tiny seed. It started to do a bit of growing, then did some more, then more, then kept growing until it patterned the blue sky with green for all to see.
It’s the same with the strange new thing of peace in the world. Initially, we are cynical. We doubt it can be done. Then we begin to hope it can be done. At that point all we must do is do a little bit of what we want to see in the world – we make a bit of peace – then a bit more, then more, and then we won’t be able to stop ourselves from making peace a lot, until peace patterns the world around us. And the whole world will wonder why it wasn’t done centuries ago.
But peace all over the world seems incredible, too big a task. We need someone powerful, omnipresent, omnipotent, with a deep voice and a huge flaming sword to bring about peace on earth.
No, we don’t.
We just need you and me.
I’m not a diplomat, ambassador, prime minister, Queen, or member of the UN. The media don’t know I exist, so my public clout is non-existent. I’m nearly seventy years old and don’t like to be too far from a toilet after I’ve had a cup of tea. So how can I make the world pay attention when I tell it to start being more peaceful?
It's not about telling the world to be more peaceful. It’s about telling myself.
A quote from John Lennon found on the site Ecological Consciousness:
Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away. Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace… we just need to declare it.
Peace starts with me.
Just like a little bit of yeast leavens the whole loaf of bread and a little salt flavours the whole pot of soup, a little bit of peace generated by me affects the whole world.
In his book, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, speaker and author Charles Eisenstein wrote:
. . . our salvation must come from recovering a direct relationship to what’s alive in front of us.
The world doesn’t need to hear your voice or read your words or see you on the six o’clock news for you to make a difference to peace in the world.
Who is alive in front of you?
Begin the salvation of humanity by giving them a bit of peace.
With love, Marlane