I’m remembering my dad singing “all we are saying is give peace a chance” He didn’t like the Beatles, their music or their hair, and I’m sure he didn’t know the rest of the lyrics–but he sang that one line. -Judy DiCristofaro (CLF)
What does it mean to give peace a chance? Why might that line be so resonant to so many?
Wendell Berry’s famous poem “The Peace of Wild Things” is not a complete view of peace, but it’s an important one — one that centers presence, relationship with other beings, and the possibility of internal peace in any moment. I love the frame that peace is resting in the grace of the world, and that wildness is a necessary component or access point to that peace. -Rose Gallogly (CLF)
How have you found peace amidst wildness?
“Progressive peace in a nation is the result of conflict; and conflict, such as is healthy, stimulating, and progressive, is produced through the coexistence of radically opposing or racially different elements.” –Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964)
When have you witnessed conflict be healthy, stimulating, and progressive? How might you imagine it could be so?
A peace meditation for today:
We remember the past to learn from it. We learn from a history of oppression that all people should be free. We learn from a history of injustice that equality must prevail. We learn from a history of violence how to create peace. We learn from a history of intolerance that love must replace hate, that mutuality must replace individuality, that unity must bridge the divides of centuries.
We honor the past, but we are not of the past. We remember the past to learn from it. Let us learn to sow the seeds of peace wherever they might grow.
How might you sow a seed of peace today?
For the past seven months, we have been offering daily reflections on the seven values that Unitarian Universalists have deemed central to our faith: Love, Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Interdependence, and Generosity. It is important that our articulated values are lived out loud–that they become our expressed values through actions every day.
What values are central in your life? How do you express them through your actions?
