Building a Life That Matters: Peaceful Coexistence

Prayer of St, Francis

_{Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,}

_{Where there is hatred, let me sow love;}

_{Where there is injury, pardon;}

_{Where there is doubt, faith;}

_{Where there is despair, hope;}

_{Where there is darkness, light;}

_{Where there is sadness, joy.}

_{O Divine Master,grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;to be understood, as to understand;to be loved, as to love.For it is in giving that we receive.It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.}

_Amen.

So, here we are on this planet spinning on an axis, rotating around a sun which is part of a galaxy, one of a billion or trillion in this expanse we call Universe. We must somehow come to grips with the fact that we are here and however we believe we got here or see this life, we must participate in it or die. If we choose to live the next choice we must make is how do we want to live, in peace or in turmoil? If we choose peace we come to another question. How do I obtain peace if others decide to promote conflict or turmoil? That is the question that people who want to build a life that matters must answer and you can only answer it for yourselves and no one else. The paradox is that the more people who decide to obtain peace for themselves, within themselves, the more external peace there is for everyone on our planet! WoooooooooHoooooooooo!

Okay boys and girls, calm down - we aren't there quite yet! The point is as Virginia Woolf said we cannot find peace by avoiding life; the idea is we must find it while living, participating and engaging in...life!

So, How are we doing so far?

If you take a brief look at the link to the right you will see as a global society peace hasn't quite caught on yet, at least not in the hearts of everyone, which would be the planetary goal, right? Or perhaps, cynically, we measure our movement toward peace by counting the number of deaths caused by unresolved conflicts throughout the world. If that is the case we can see we're doing pretty good. NOT!

Or perhaps we are measuring peace by the number of suicides or broken marriages or acts of violence around the globe. Okay, the stage is set, not much has improved in the last gazillion years, but we are participating in life, yes? Maybe! As president Reagan once said above " a people free to choose will always choose peace." Am I missing something here? Is it that we are not actually free to choose or have we, as I contend, not actually chosen to choose peace quite yet.

It's not about fighting for peace, it's about collaborating to produce it...everywhere. So where does that peace begin? You've got it! Inside each one of us, one heart at a time. No, one heartbeat at a time! Okay, so consider for a moment that I am correct. I now have to know how I, personally, get to the point of literally and figuratively laying down my arms. Even if that leaves me defenseless, you might ask? Well, I recognize this as potentially the greatest form of Idealism, but do we want to be in conflict all the time, forever? Isn't there another way of solving our differences without armed conflict? Isn't our external action nothing more than a manifestation of our inner feeling? We must begin to think and feel differently, individually and collectively, to create a world of peace...please!

I know I cannot produce peace in the world. If I believe that I could have, I would have done it already. I believe that peace in the world is possible only if I, the individual human being, participate in it, if I allow peace to reside in my heart without expecting to see it in anyone else before I take responsibility for my own frame of mind and reference.

That is why I am writing about "Building a Life That Matters." I am not trying to change the world. I am trying to change myself so I can become part of the growing collective consciousness that is shifting and moving toward a new level of life...one not without conflict or turmoil necessarily, (wouldn't that be nice) but one where conflict and turmoil are resolved without violence, hatred or bloodshed because there is first, peace in the hearts of men and women who want to preserve this new way of living for posterity and do it in a way that promotes the pursuit of unconditional love and joy in the environment of internal and external peace!

Each time a man or woman decides for him or herself that peace within is the only answer to peace without, we gain a step towards building and enjoying a life that matters...to you...to me... and to a universe desperate for its existence!

May peace always walk with you...north, south, east and west, let it precede you and follow you and may it always and forever reside at the very core of your being!