Peacemaking Is Its Own End Goal

The other day, a neighbor shouted my name as I was leaving the house. “Wait,” he cried, as he marched down the street toward me. “Well,” thought I, “this should be interesting. I’m on my way to work, and late as usual! What will it be this time?” The last time we talked, he came to express displeasure with me.

He hailed me by saying “I must say to you ‘May God Bless you,’ for what you’ve done for (a particular person.)” I replied, “Thank you, but that person simply needed something that was within my abilities to offer them, so I did.” The neighbor listed the reasons that action may have been challenging. Again, I asserted, it was within my abilities to offer them what they needed. But then I acknowledged him with a simple “Thank you.” There was no reason to tussle over how challenging he or I thought that action may have been.

Reflecting on the conversation, I realized that the whole exchange had raised my hackles a bit, not because of his recognizing that I had done something he considered kind. Given the unevenness of our relationship, I was very grateful for that. Rather, I realized I was having a thealogical reaction to the notion that the sleeve of the Divine must be tugged to notice what I had done and grant approval. Whatever I believe about the Divine, it is not that. Instead, I feel as if it is my responsibility upon rising to celebrate the wonder of this world, to ask how I might best bring Love (in my case Peace) into the world today. Being kind or generous should be an expected response for the bounty that is around us.

That seems even more pointed in these times when a whole bunch of people do not awaken to wonder at the abundance around them but rather rise and consider what might become theirs today. Their doing that, however, doesn’t change our responsibility — which is to start each day with “Wow… Thanks… Where do I, how can I, spread the Peace today?” Ha! Maybe this is a great simplification of what is now being despised as ‘woke’. But, no, really… we are to awaken in wonder and joy, if we can find our way clear to that. In response to that sense of bounty, we are to make headway toward the path of Peacemaking throughout the day.

In a liturgy I wrote a long time ago and which I still believe, I urged all of us “to count our blessings, and to make ourselves blessings to be counted.” We said that every Sunday in my church in California. Now, I say it to myself frequently. It’s part of my drive to work. There’s a barn I pass that somehow has become a reminder to give thanks and to rededicate myself to this work of Peace. When I make time for my gratitude of Peace, I find myself more capable of being the Peacemaker I want to be — that the world needs all of us to be. We will not change what’s going on in this world until enough of us gather to bend the arc toward Justice. We do so by being the blessings that are needed.

We are, each and every one of us, gifts to the world from the Life Force. We come pre-blessed. We come able to water the gardens of those who have not yet had the opportunity to awaken to their blessings. We come responsible for the Beauty of this World and this Life. How about joining me on the Peacepath of Blessing? All together now, let’s bend that arc so that “Justice may roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Let us bend that arc so there will be Peace on Earth. Why would we do this? Because the blessings are overflowing and we can help the world remember — and to pass those blessings along. Because Peacemaking is its own end goal. I love being reminded of what a blessing you are to this world. It inspires me to stretch my wings of Peace — to soar and to enfold.

Salaam, Shalom, Peace, and Blessed Be!
Ann