Peace

Charlotte wrote a post about War recently, following on from a discussion that is going on about supporting the troops while being against the war itself. My initial reaction was as Charlotte says of herself to do an ostrich impression, avoid thinking about it and live my life, but then all these poorly expressed thoughts kept popping up in my head and I knew I would have to write something. The first thing that came to mind was Mother Theresa’s famous quote :

I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there.
Mother Teresa

She was wise beyond measure in that simple assertion. Try for yourself. Think about the word War, observe your body’s reactions. Do you feel a tightening of fists, clenching of teeth, anxiety, an element of fear starting to tie up your stomach? Now try the word Peace. Your body relaxes, facial muscles soften, a feeling of warmth pervades you. Imagine lots of people experiencing those feelings, waves of energy rippling from them into the world, spreading their feelings and attracting back a like energy and you can understand why she insisted on the words pro-peace.

So I find that I don't want to write about the war, I would rather philosophise about peace, read what people have said about peace and keep the harsh W word away from my blog and family. This doesn't mean that I wouldn't support the troops - they are all people doing their best according to their beliefs and deserve our moral and practical support. I do think though, that when there is nothing practical we can do about it, all we can do is try to meditate, pray or just use positive visualisation to focus on peace. If we could all do that and send out that positive energy to spread over the world, maybe, just maybe it could start to make things better.

Here is a site with loads of interesting peace quotes, where I found a couple more that resonate with me:

We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but on the positive affirmation of peace. We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the discords of war. Somehow, we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race, which no one can win, to a positive contest to harness humanity's creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all the nations of the world. In short, we must shift the arms race into a peace race. If we have a will - and determination - to mount such a peace offensive, we will unlock hitherto tightly sealed doors of hope and transform our imminent cosmic elegy into a psalm of creative fulfillment.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

Maybe if every one in the US emailed this one to the White House, they would take notice!

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969)