How to Find Peace in a Frantic World
If you watch the news, you will be inundated by repetitive negativity and often viewpoints based on conjecture, opinion, and a barrage of “what if?” I do like keeping up with world affairs, and even politics, but too much can be worse that watching some stupid television show…
Peace comes in a frantic world, when you turn off the media…when you turn on your ability to just see the beauty around you. it is there, in nature, in people, in stories of good that are available if you look.
There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.”
These immortal words, spoken by Gandhi, are the only truth about peace that will lead to its ever being realized in our world. (Read Peace is the Way by Deepak Chopra)
You and I must strive toward peaceful living in our homes, with our families, our communities and our world. That means to be purposeful and conscious of our actions and communications every day.
And when we find ourselves not at peace, act! Do something peaceful, or “peace-creating.” Be anonymously kind to someone, or be of service to a stranger. Give a gift for no reason other than that of love.
Some time ago I was in line at a grocery store, and the person in front of me had to place 4 items aside because the cost was more money than they had. I told the cashier to put those with my purchases and the person in front almost cried… It wasn’t much to me, but it was to them, and as they left, they turned and genuinely thanked me. The return gift I got was a warmth in my heart and a smile on my face, and a feeling of peace in that moment.
We all can be less apathetic and more responsible (response able). What daily actions are you taking for peace? What self-limiting beliefs about the world and about other cultures aren’5 you challenging? Anger and violence seem to be dominating human attitudes today and yet I know that there are millions of quiet peacemakers. Maybe it is time to be more vocal, more actionable, and more authentic. How can we find ways to mobilize our global warming of people, not the planet?
It has been 40 years since Martin Luther King was assassinated for being a peacemaker, but his powerful words still ring true, “Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is LOVE.”
In Speak Peace in a World of Conflict by Marshall Rosenberg, he teaches to create peace by connecting to life at three levels:
- Creating peace within ourselves.
- Creating peaceful connections with others.
- Transforming the structures that we have created — corporate, judicial, governmental, and others — that don’t support peaceful, life-enriching connections between us.
And in The Anatomy of Peace by the Arbinger Institute, the character of Yusuf says, “lasting solutions to our outward conflicts are possible only to the extent we find real solutions to our inner ones.”
Peace is the way, and the path begins within us, then we can journey toward peace with others in our community and hopefully that will spread.
Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself. All things are bound together. All things connect.” Chief Seattle.
