By Gail Suplee Tatum, Columnist, The Times
Does this sound like a tall order to you? It shouldn’t be a tall order but alas, it is.
For centuries we’ve fought for peace and in the fighting, many casualties occurred and still do, to this day. Many songs have been written and many prayers have been prayed for the hope of peace.
Is it possible to make peace in a world so divided and with so many different opinions? We haven’t been able to accomplish it yet.
These and many other questions on this topic run through my head often, plus the big one. Are we capable?
I offer several suggestions that I, myself, contemplate and work hard at putting into practice. I hope they offer some insight and perspective for you.
- Start by looking in the mirror. How do we make peace in our world? Peace begins with the person staring back at us. Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.Buddha
- Be accepting. I know this is particularly difficult to do with so many different opinions that people have about EVERYTHING, these days. Remember accepting does not mean agreeing.
- Sometimes the only way to make peace with ourselves, which again is where it starts, is to let go of negativity in our life, which can mean news, activities and, yes, people in our life who aren’t supportive and accepting. Replace that with people, places and activities that lift us up.
- Manage the distractions that bombard us every day. In order to carve out our path to peace throughout our daily encounters, we must make a constant, conscious effort.
- Know that through the struggle, we’ll find the treasure.
- Walk the walk. Actions speak louder than words and are far more believable than what we say.
- If we want to change the world, change our thoughts. To bring peace in the world starts with bringing peace to ourselves and we do that by changing our thoughts. Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be. Wayne Dyer
- The other thing we can do is be joyful. Release joy into the world. Even though sometimes we’re struggling ourselves, the best remedy is to release our joy into a hurting world. We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share. Maya Angelou
- We need faith, which by definition is a complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Faith consists of believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe. Voltaire
It can be boiled down to the fact that the destruction or healing of the world hinges on which way we think. Are we putting things together or tearing things apart? Are we selfish and think, “This is mine”, or are we humble in thinking, “I belong to this”? Do we separate or unify?
There is a lot of healing needed in order to get to peace and keep us joined together.
My final thought here is that we must not conform to the harshness of this world but instead be transformed by the goodness that is in this world and within people. Prime examples are how people rise up and pull together to help one another when there is a disaster, like 911 or, more recently, Hurricane Ida.
This article is riddled with questions. They are questions that need answers and need NOT be ignored.
What greater ambition can we as human beings have in life then to bring about a real lasting permanent peace.
Can you do that? Can I? Can we? Together, we can try.
