Finding Peace in the Midst of a Storm

In the midst of so many reports of businesses closing or laying off employees, it is more important than ever for us to find ways to build bridges across previous chasms of misunderstanding and intolerance.  There are ways we can find to work together cooperatively, even when we differ in the solutions we think will work best.  Perhaps it's time to find a third way together.  Perhaps there is some kind of both/and rather than the either/or it has been profitable to encourage us to believe in for so long.

Friends recently sent me the video clip you'll see below.  It depicts Americans from all over the country of various ages, races, religions and backgrounds, reclaiming the love, pride, and rights and responsibilities of citizenship through song.

Encouraging each other to hold on, look up, take action, and help one another can keep us moving forward, rather than looking back in anger or surrendering to despair.

At our Sunday service this past weekend, everyone in our congregation selected a slip of paper with the name of a country written on it on opposite ends.  We pledged to pray for peace for that country in our hands each day throughout the Season for Nonviolence, an annual program that runs from January 31–April 4.  Each slip of paper was then torn in two with the name of the country appearing on each half.  One half was kept by the person praying, the other half was dropped into a clear plastic box with a photo of Earth on its front side.  On Sunday, April 5th, we will all bring our slips of paper back with us to the service for the closing ritual we will share together for SNV. 

I've been reading some books lately that remind me of the power of imagination to set new discoveries into motion.  While pundits and news commentators imagine and speculate about all the trouble we could see, how about a different approach?  How about imagining what it could be like if we did work together successfully?  What would that feel like?  What would that look like?  What would change?  What would be healed?

During this time of what seems to be a lot of bad news, I encourage you to find good news to welcome and spread around to others as well.  

I send you love, hope, laughter, enthusiasm, imagination, ingenuity, and collaborative brilliance.  And yes, I send you peace: inner peace, peace in your relationships, peace in your neighborhoods, peace in your country, peace on our planet.