Sometimes, when I come home from the trauma bay…
Sometimes, when I open the newspaper…
Sometimes, when I overhear a conversation…
I become dispirited. I just can’t.
Sometimes, the ugliness is overwhelming.
Sometimes, I’m tired.
Sometimes, I just don’t want to do this anymore.
But what else am I going to do?
This is who I am. Even when I don’t wanna, I’m a Peacemaker. Even before I knew it, I was being trained to be a Peacemaker. Even when I’m really bad at it, I’m a Peacemaker. And there are plenty of times, I’m bad at it. Plenty of times, when I can’t understand why people can’t just see, or understand, or do. Plenty of times.
I get told that building beloved community is not what we’re needing to do — neither is standing for something, and neither is just tending to the broken and attempting to make a safe place in the midst of the brokenness, to just rest for a moment… just one moment. Oh, no. We need to be constantly fighting against those who break.
They don’t understand that building a new way, that creating social and emotional kintsugi, that writing a poem about a whale in a place of Peace in Antarctica is building space for the possibilities — that these things aren’t concerned with fighting against; they’re concerned with Possibilities, they’re concerned with Hope, they’re concerned with connections between and amongst us. And that is Peacemaking.
So why not gather, why not laugh. Why put the words no more — dot, dot, dot in our mouths when we can say Yes! This! I’ll do this! because I can, because I yearn and desire, because I Believe in Peace. I believe in you.
Sometimes, when I come home from the trauma bay…
Sometimes, when I open the newspaper…
Sometimes, when I overhear a conversation…
I become dispirited. I just can’t.
Sometimes, the ugliness is overwhelming.
Sometimes, I’m tired.
Sometimes, I just don’t want to do this anymore.
But what else is a Peacemaker to do? This. Today. Tomorrow. The day after That. So, eat well, laugh and love with your family and friends, exercise in some way that gives you pleasure, and sleep. You’re going to need it.
This is the beginning of what I will offer Paid Subscribers; this is your invitation. If you’re willing to commit, I’m willing to work toward helping you make sense of your values and your passion and the ways you choose to put them to work in the world. You may get tired. You may get dispirited. But, I can guarandamntee you, you will go to bed exhausted and wake up with a new notion about how you might work on this project we call Peace. I know this, because I know how wonderful you are. I know how wonderfully Powerful the Divine is for me, but when I wish you Peace, I am not so much wishing you Divine Peace, I am wishing for you the Peace you will make. It’s up to you whether those are connections you make or not.
Salaam, Shalom, Peace, and Blessed Be!