Monday, December 24, 2018

Peace on Earth


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. 


May Peace spread like wildfire, igniting all beings with love and compassion.

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