Laced throughout the history of cultures inhabiting our planet, humanity has repeatedly expressed an ardent and personal yearning for peace within our world. However, this soulful ideation offers cause for deeper reflection. If our human element really desires peace, then why is our world facing a multitude of nascent dangers that serve to threaten our very existence? What is it that causes us to be anxious, intensely competitive, and oft times selfishly driven? Are these qualities akin to a personal reflection of peace?
Collectively, we have responded to the rallying cry for peace when directly confronted by war, terrorist threat, religious or political oppression and natural disasters. We have stood up to prejudicial attacks based on differences in gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality and economic class. We have marched, we have spoken out, we have passed amendments to the constitution and we have gone on hunger strikes and held silent protests. We have amassed in enormous numbers and within intimate groups, we have occupied and we have held musical concerts. We have donated money and we have donated time. And yet, we still desperately call out for a peace that continues to intractably elude us.
Residing within this hunger for peace is an overarching challenge, one we must collectively acknowledge. We must become far more self-aware and realize that the greatest hindrance to engendering global peace is, in fact, humanity itself. But what can we do?
Robert Frost wrote a verse that many of us are highly familiar with:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I too the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
So, what might this verse mean to us and how might it help us generate peace within our lives?
I would like to suggest that by doing something we love to do every day, we are taking the road less traveled, and by doing so, we are creating a personal experience of dynamic peace. Dynamic peace is the outward, creative expression of a beautiful idea, put into motion. By doing something that we love to do, we are inspired into action, thus fueling an experience of value and meaning.
Now, think about what is it that you love to do. Are you a skater, a musician, a baker, a mathematician? Just what is it that makes you feel excited and inspired? Identify what that might be and then begin. Perhaps you might start by taking 15 minutes a day to focus on your creative selves, knowing that you are crafting your own personal pathway to peace. And imagine if you practiced 15 minutes of peace every day and then radiated that out into our world, try to envision what might happen. If every one of us did this very thing, can you visualize how our world might begin to change, one person at a time?
Peace is a lofty ideal and a beautiful desire, however, a desire without a plan of implementation remains nothing more than an unfulfilled wish. There have been many amazing women and men who have blazed the trails for peace throughout the history of mankind, each with their own unique methods and motivations. We all have observed the painful results of repression. When people have been held down far too long, they reach a tipping point and the results are often explosive. This readily occurs within individuals as well, and the effects are profound: Depression, rage, emotional and physical violence and rampant greed result when we do not live a life that is healthy, productive and inspired. We are born highly creative beings with a unique genius that is meant to be freely expressed. When this creative self-expression is stifled or extinguished entirely, the results are dark and dangerous and this is the true antithesis of peace.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I too the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Together, may we breathe in our desires to express peace through our creative brilliance, and when we release that breath, let us imagine our lives as being creatively interesting and inspired. It really is that easy -- do what you love, even 15 minutes a day, and you will be creating your very own lovely pathway to peace -- and that will make all the difference.
Heather McCloskey Beck
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