Giving Away Peace

Peace is not something you wish for;

It’s something you make,

Something you do,

Something you are,

And something you give away.

John Lennon

For today, I am giving away peace. To every person I meet I will wish them deep peace. I will look them in the eye, see them as a human being and wish them the peace that passes all understanding.

I will pray for the grace to live peace in my own soul, because it’s the only way I have a snowball’s chance in August of pulling this off. Mustering deep peace is possible only when connected to the Holy. My own efforts at wishing someone deep peace will go right out the window the first time someone tail gates me on the highway. Sadly, but honestly, I am too judgmental, too snarky and too impatient to ever pull this peace thing off on my own.

In the fervent hope that I am not alone in this and I haven’t blown all my credibility, here are a few thoughts on wishing others deep peace and what it means for our world.

It is only when we are connected to the Source of peace that we can wish peace to another. It doesn’t mean that we have to have our own house perfectly in order and do everything “right” (isn’t that the best news you’ll hear today). Life is messy and complicated. It rarely fits into the little boxes we create to corral the most challenging issues we face. We are frailly and fabulously human. None of this changes our capacity to look someone in the eye and wish them peace. In fact, it can help ground us and remind us of our connection to the Source of peace.

In these days of uncertainty and war, as images of refugees and wounded soldiers float across our TV screens with the same neutrality as the Muppets, wishing others deep peace may be the single most important thing we can do.

Most of us can’t hop a plane and fly half way across the world to work with refugees. Most of us don’t have tons of extra money we can send to reputable relief agencies to solve the refugee crisis unfolding before our eyes.

What we can do is live into deep peace with every person we meet. I believe the universe has a   positive energy that is fed by the human energy of every person who lives peace, wishes peace, does justice and lives gently on the earth.

We are part of a world-wide community that is filled with people we will never meet, who nonetheless are our sisters and brothers. I believe that what I do in my little corner of the world matters to the whole.

Like war, peace must be waged, and we do that in the way that we live each day, connected to the Source of peace and living out of that relationship. So, for today (and maybe tomorrow and the next day) let us wish others deep peace. These small gestures have the power to change the world.

Judyth Hill writes:

“Wage peace with your breath. Breathe in firemen and rubble, breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds. Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields. Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees. Breathe in the fall and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud. Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers. Make soup. Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages. Learn to knit, and make a hat. Think of chaos as dancing raspberries. Imagine grief as the out breath of beauty or the gesture of fish. Swim to the other side.

Wage peace. Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious. Have a cup of tea and rejoice. Act as if armistice has already arrived. Celebrate today.”

And I would add, wish deep peace to everyone you meet.