January 2023 – Peacemaker Priestess

Living a Peacemaker’s Life

Becoming a Peacemaker is an honorable goal. As with every goal, there’s quite a bit of work to be done before you are really living into Peacemaking. (Keep reading! It gets more encouraging!) You don’t have to have completed all the work before beginning your Peacemaking — but it’s a good idea to engage with all of the components I detail below so that your style of Peacemaking becomes a natural expression of who you are.

Each of us finds our own way into Peacemaking. Writing about Peace set me on the Peacepath. As many of you may know, I have been writing daily musings for 12 years now. If you’d like to sign up, you can do so here. Since October, I’ve also been reading them on TikTok, so if you’d rather listen, find me there at Tiktok/annkeelerevans. My current musings explore what comprises a Peacemaker’s life. They are reflective exercises on principles and values – the components I consider central to Peacemaking. I now have a list of fifteen components which are detailed below. They are mostly in the order I think makes sense to consider, but you may find you’ll want to reflect on them in the order that is most meaningful for your Peacemaking.

Haunted by a Hit to the Heart (and what it means)

On January 2, 2023, in a Buffalo Bills/Cincinnati Bengals game, Buffalo Bill Damar Hamlin tackled Tee Higgens. Mr. Higgens, running full-speed hit Mr. Hamlin in the chest and head area. In a weird, horrific accident, that hit caused Mr. Hamlin’s heart to short-circuit and stop. Damar Hamlin is now out of the hospital and back home in Buffalo. I have no idea what impact this will have on his career. I wonder what impact it will have on Tee Higgens?

This was a powerful moment to share.

I have been haunted by the fact that when struck just right/wrong, a heart, thought to be safe within its bony cavity can stop. Can break. Evolution has done what it can to keep us safe. But there are always ways around evolution, aren’t there?

Prepare for Peace in 2023

Becoming a Peacemaker requires us to make fundamental changes in how we comprehend the world. Only when we actually begin to consider Peacemaking as a way of life, do we realize how much work it is. Not to be discouraging, but let’s be realistic.

Because our conflict torn world has taught us to think of Peace as pie in the sky, we think of it as magic. Magic that we see, not that we do. Because anyone who does magic can tell you that magic is very hard work. It requires one to master many small steps that then must be folded into one smooth action. Wow! “Presto Change-o!” The Magician says that, but they know that they’ve performed steps A-Z to get there.

Peace entails mastering the small steps which then tumble into a gorgeous pathway. We are impatient about mastering the beginning steps and instead want to start with a major accomplishment, “Presto!” Peacemaking is the sum of all the small steps that only in retrospect look like a complete shift.