When I wage a war against my self by exiling the parts I condemn as bad, then inevitably, even without any mystical causality, conflict will erupt around me.
Peace is the capacity to hold the parts that I am uncomfortable with.
In this moment where there is a war going on, it is more important than ever to practice being present to and inclusive of all my parts, of what makes me how and what I am. I will not be speaking directly to the leaders of warring countries. But in those moments when I have a choice to be peace or to be war, to demonize or dehumanize someone, or to hold them in the fullness of their humanity, I can choose the latter and generate a field of peace.
And if enough of us do this at every opportunity in our lives, then it is going to change the climate. In such a climate there can be a negotiated settlement.
And I believe that this can and will happen. The two sides within me are going to make peace. The two sides outside of me will reflect that movement.
And I won’t be able to prove that what happens in the world around me was because of the peaceful thing that I did. But some part of me will know that I am part of it. Because I am declaring what the world is. Because I am declaring what is possible when I have that difficult moment and I hold peace with someone when it is hard; when the old habit was to “let them have it” and go to war against them, but instead I held peace.
It is not the same as capitulating. It is how I choose to see them. When I do that, when we do that, we are declaring what is possible for human beings to do.
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