metanoia's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peace I have come to the conclusion that peace is where you make it, and not where you find it. Peace is an interactive practice and not thing to be found, living in it's pristine entirety waiting for the moment it is realized. Peace is living and evolving, rather than being static and well defined. A persons peace with someone or some idea comes from work - inner work. Attempts to make one part of a thing reconcilable within us is the beginning of making peace. There are people for whom I have had nothing but dislike. Some of these people are family members. Through the years I have found ways to live with them and understand their ways. This is what I call making peace with them. Emma may enjoy jigsaw puzzles, and so do I, so that becomes my foundation for peace. It is something we have in common, something to share. I do not bring up issues I have with why I do not like her. I deal with her only on that peaceable level. The place where I made my peace. Age gives a perspective that is lacking in youth, at least it was lacking in my youth. Age allows a look at the larger picture; we are able to look back at things that bugged us and find that they were miniscule in the grand scheme of things. To obsess about a broken glass or a why we hate someone is a waste of time, which becomes more precious when we age. Better to find a common ground and meet there. There is more to be learned in peace than in hatred. Hatred can consume a person to the point that it becomes the focus of our lives, to the detriment of anything that we could have accomplished. My niece is a case in point. She hated her father and his new wife because she blamed him for hurting her mother. She never forgave either of them, constantly hating and trying to punish them. Then my brother died. The object of her hate had left and she missed him terribly. She is continuing the march, however with my sister-in-law. Being mean and hateful to her as the situation allows. My niece has hurt not only my brother and his "new" wife, but also herself with this. I would say mostly herself. My brother was married to his "new" wife for at least 25 years - - - 25 years of hate for my niece and my brother to bear. Better to have made peace. Much better to have made peace. What a digression. Perhaps making peace can involve looking for it. Perhaps the things we find can become the foundation for a larger peace. I do know that peace is not found whole, in one piece. Hah. Rather we find a piece of peace and begin to make Peace. Pax. 9:18 a.m. - 2003-10-28 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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