Peace for Peace

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

I am grateful today for safe travels and time with my friend Sheila and her family yesterday for her father's funeral. Rest in peace Earl. I am deeply grateful for the lasting and deep friendship that Sheila and I share, and for the peace that I know in my life and the new ways I am learning to tap into it.

The above quote is telling me it takes peace to find peace. Initially that sounds counterintuitive, but then again I can't fully share something with others until I understand and possess it myself. Seeking personal peace --through meditation, recovery, therapy, forgiveness, healing, writing, running--has helped and continues to help me know more calm and clarity. 

With a healthier sense of self, I spend less time spun up in my head and in self-centered pursuits. That allows me more time and energy to bring to the people and circumstances in each day. When I arrive with a more peaceful presence and open mind, my contributions are much more likely to be helpful, less likely to be a hindrance. 

At the funeral yesterday, the priest spoke of death being a homecoming. I find comfort in that, versus the view we so often take of death as a loss or an ending. It can be all those things, but if we land on the hope and healing of a welcome homecoming, peace comes.

I think about our troubled and divisive world today as well. If I am pointing fingers, casting blame, harshly judging, being self-righteous, waiting for someone else to fix things; these two things are probably true: 

1) I am not at peace myself. 

2) I am not adding peace to the collective soul of the world.

Would I rather be that person, or one who generates compassion and understanding? It is a choice. Which will I make? Which will you?