Peace is something everyone seeks to know: peace in our relationships, with our past, our choices in life, but mostly with our own self-assessments. We seek peace when we don’t feel it. We seek peace because it is a quality of God, a part of who we truly are, which, for some reason we have abandoned.
If you are mindfully searching to release false beliefs around being unworthy or undeserving of love, I invite you into a personal conversation during the month of February, as we explore the topic of ‘Diversity Inclusion.’ Have you ever been the recipient of bias, racism, bullying, unjust behaviour, cruelty, shaming or abuse of any kind? Or, might you have been the initiator of those same behaviours?
What I know for sure is that we can create a more peaceful way of living for ourselves, for those we love, and for humankind… by expanding our consciousness of acceptance.
I know it is easy to feel separate from that which we don’t understand, for the world is full of diverse individuals and situations which often trigger us and which test our resolve to ‘do unto others.’ But might it just be possible, that the root cause of internal unrest lies in the cradle of self-judgement? Perhaps judgement is born from those aspects of self that we do not accept, that we refuse to include in our self-description, or that with which we never wish to identify? In fact, you could say that we exclude the parts of ourselves that we don’t understand or like. And where is the peace is that?
We’re all unique individualizations of the One Spirit - ever evolving in the awareness and expression of our divine humanity. As we learn to embrace all of who we are, we will demonstrate an attitude of inclusion and we will welcome diversity into our lives. And there is much peace in that!
This poem by David Roberts written in 1999 entitled, There Will Be Peace, is my offering to you this week:
There will be peace when attitudes change:
When self-interest is seen as part of common interest;
When old wrongs, old scores, old mistakes are deleted from the account;
When the aim becomes co-operation and mutual benefit,
Rather than revenge or seizing maximum personal or group gain;
When justice and equality before the law become the basis of government;
When basic freedoms exist;
When leaders - political, religious, educational - and the police and media,
Wholeheartedly embrace the concepts of justice, equality, freedom, tolerance, and reconciliation as a basis for renewal;
When parents teach their children new ways to think about people.
There will be peace:
When enemies become fellow human beings.
Rev. Nadene Rogers