Let there be Peace on Earth, and
let it begin with me.
Let there be Peace on earth, the Peace
that was meant to be. …
Let Peace begin with me, let this
be the moment now.
With every step I take, let this
be my solemn vow.
To take each moment and live each
moment in Peace eternally.
Let there be Peace on Earth, and
let it begin with me.
Lyrics: Jill
Jackson
When I was a child, growing up in
the Methodist Church, “Peace on Earth” was my favorite part of the Christmas
message. I loved singing “Let There be
Peace on Earth,” a song that still brings tears to my eyes. I thought the vision of a Peaceful Earth was
beautiful—something to aspire to. I hold
to this day a vivid image of angels bending down to earth to share this sacred
message.
I grew up in central Florida in the
1950s & 60s—a child of the Cold War—trained to hide under my desk to save
myself from nuclear annihilation. I was
12 during the Cuban Missile Crisis and vividly remember how terrified my
parents were—knowing in my soul that we would be among the first casualties of
the nuclear war that seemed inevitable.
I lost high school and college friends in Vietnam and volunteered as a
draft counselor during college. My
boyfriend applied to graduate schools in Canada in case he had to leave the
country in order to avoid the draft. As
I look back on life, I lived a lot of my formative years in the shadow of
war.
As I come to appreciate how much I
was influenced by growing up in the shadow of war, I cannot begin to comprehend
the life experiences of the thousands of individuals and families currently
fleeing violence, war and religious persecution unlike any we in this country
have ever directly experienced. My heart
is bleeds for those who suffer so when all they are seeking is the time and
space to live their lives in Peace.
And so I keep returning to the
importance of Peace on Earth. In my
young adult years, I pretty much defined Peace as the absence of war. When I began exploring Earth-centered spirituality—in
my case, Celtic Paganism—my definition of Peace expanded to include care for
and healing of Mother Earth. How could
there be Peace among humans while we daily raped and exhausted our home—this
beloved planet—and showed no respect for other sentient beings?
In the last few years, my
definition of Peace has expanded again—this time to affirm the belief that
violence of any kind is a breaking of the Peace. As violence has spread throughout our society,
and civil discourse has gone underground, it becomes clear to me that Peace Making
must begin at here at home, in our relations with our neighbors (both literal
and figurative), in our relations with our families, in our relations with
Mother Earth. Truly, that is the only
way forward for ourselves and all sentient beings with which we share this
planet.
At this point in my life, as I
approach my 70th birthday, it seems that my generation is destined
to live in the shadow of war, or in active wartimes, for our whole lives. And every year, political leaders around the
world give lip-service to Peace as a goal, while simultaneously increasing the
war chest.
Albert Einstein once said that “Peace
cannot be kept by force. It can only be
achieved by understanding.” As we move deeper into this holiday season and begin to
prepare for the New Year of 2019, Peace on Earth continues to resonate with
me. And so I affirm my intention to
deepen my understanding of all sentient beings with which I share this world—I affirm
my intention to let Peace begin with me—to make a solemn vow to take each
moment and live each moment in Peace eternally. Will you make this vow with me?
May Peace spread like wildfire,
igniting all beings with love and compassion.
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