As I’ve aged, I’ve become highly suspicious of any belief system without a “pressure relief valve,” any closed circular system where there is only one way forward and those not on that path are bad, wrong, deserving of whatever they suffer. Such systems seem to hurt people, and the more personal the content of a belief system, the more pain is inflicted. -Meg Riley
What are the pressure relief valves in your belief system?
How shall we mend you, sweet Soul?
With these, I think, gently
we can begin: we will mend you with a rocking
chair, some raisins,
a cat, a field of lavender beginning
now to bloom. We will mend you with songs
remembered entirely the first time
ever they are heard. -Nancy Shaffer, from her poem “Mending”
What can mend the wounded parts of your soul?
“What impossible things does your heart yearn for? What hopes, if you named them out loud, would seem laughable? Does “peace” seem impossible to you? Is it laughable to think that we human beings could live in peace in the Middle East? Between the gang zones in your own city? In our own families? Or perhaps what seems impossible is that our culture will one day reflect the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” -Erika Hewitt
When have you witnessed something thought “impossible” become possible?
I grew up with the idea that peace was the ultimate to strive for. But lately I’ve been wondering if the oppressed should always be held to peace as a standard. Beyond the concept of a just war, but also in daily actions against oppression. Oppression is not peaceful. And yet I hear reverence for peaceful protest and disdain for anything not deemed peaceful. Michelle Obama said “When they go low, we go high.” Is that always right? Can they go low enough that going high isn’t what’s needed? And how do we define that boundary? -Jody Malloy (CLF)
How do you define the boundary past which calls for peace are oppressive?
There is no one right way to know or practice peace. – Katherine Hofmann (CLF)
What are ways that you choose to practice peace?
