A Foundation For Peace

(Please click on the title for a reading aloud by the author.)

This is like making a pie crust - something so simple many of us find it difficult. With pie crusts I do pretty well, but with this essay I’ve been working on it for a week and still…

That this character Jesus, whose birthday many of us are about to celebrate is known as “The Prince of Peace,” has me thinking about why something so desirable as peace eludes us. We preach and make speeches for peace, we hope and pray for it, we display stickers and flags about it. These actions are all very glamorous and inspiring. But what we apparently are missing, the key, to building a solid foundation for peace and hence having it is accomplished by doing it.

It starts with forgiveness and acceptance of ourselves and then, others. This can be a surprisingly tall order, but once there we can make thoughtful choices to be peaceful, even in the face of conflict and hostility. The journey toward living this way is filled with twists and turns, but with care and diligence, with recognizing successes however small, and forgiving failures however large peacefulness comes naturally… or at least for me, it does most of the time. It is a long road well worth taking.

Each of us is equipped with love and fear and hence the capacity to act in peace or hostility. We have the power to choose the way we act, and the world we create depends on our choices. Simply, quietly and moment by moment.

You and I can be a Prince or Princess of Peace. Everything we need is within us.

Gordon Bunker