As those who receive my daily email inspiration know, we are, until April fourth, in the international Season of Non-Violence.  This Season of Non-Violence is the period of time between the anniversaries of the deaths of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. 

This is a time when our thoughts can focus on peace and how to make it a part of our lives.

Someone once said that love is not a noun, it is a verb.  I believe we could say the same about peace.  It may not be grammatically correct to use peace as a verb yet it is recognizable as an action word; “Make peace not war”.  Just as all things in a state of rest, it needs to be maintained through continuous activity.

We must do something to maintain peace.  Peace doesn’t just happen; it needs our attention, our education and our communication to be maintained.

Every successful marriage is maintained through communication.  We must devote time and energy to it, we must make it a priority in our lives; the same is true of all our relationships.  To develop peace we must have mutual respect and tolerance.  We do not have to agree, yet we must resolve to allow for differences, even celebrate them.

In a world where education is totally focused on getting stuff, our education for peace becomes a personal responsibility.  We must seek out ways and means to learn peaceful communication.  This will take time and practice; our world being focused on getting that stuff, communicates for the most part very aggressively. 

It seeks to manipulate and use the emotions of others to meet personal needs and desires.  This form of communication, I speculate, is the leading cause of “the generation gap”.  Except for a rare and fortunate few, we, the parents of today, grew up with communication being, “do it or suffer the consequences”. 

It is no wonder our neighbours to the south have chosen such a leadership, it is what they grew up with, and it gives them a childish sense of security.  We in this country are little different.  Globally the tendency is to prefer a strong authority figure who is not afraid to say how it is going to be.

When a pattern is so entrenched in the ‘system’ change must happen first on an individual level.  Learn to communicate non-violently and teach by example.

Most important in this journey toward world peace we must decide to be proactive.  We must get off the sidelines on matters of integrity.  We must learn to speak out, take ownership of our world and lives. 

We must do all this while respecting and honouring our differences.  For peace to happen we must give it our attention daily.  Ask yourself as you close the chapter of this day, what did I do to promote peace? 

What have I done today to ensure a world for my children, for my nation’s children and my world’s children?  Ask yourself, today, have I been part of the problem or have I been part of the solution?  What have I done to support peace in one other person’s life?

World peace demands personal attention and personal action.  War, disease, pollution is everyone’s problem.  Global peace is the only solution.  May you discover new ways to spread peace this week.

Blessings,