Mama Says Om - Peace

Most of us think wistfully about peace now and then, and we think about what will befall those who come after us, our children, our grandchildren and their children, but it is not enough merely to think about peace from time to time and entertain fond hopes. We have to place love, interconnection, peace and the moving breathing cultivation of peace at the core of our lives — at the very centre and heart of our existence.

We have to become peace ourselves. We must become Shambala warriors, and as such, we will have to wage peace with as much (or even more) commitment, diligence, tenacity and focused heart as those who wage war and take pleasure in its inexorable carnage, suffering and destruction. There must be peace in every breath we draw and peace in every footstep we take — there must be peace in everything.

Wage Peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble.
Breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red-wing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists.
Breathe out sleeping children and fresh mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen and breathe out life long relationships intact.
Wage peace with our listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothing pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music; learn the word "thank you" in 3 languages.
Learn to knit: make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries.
Imagine grief
as the outbreak of beauty or gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the word seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.

Judyth Hill, Wage Peace

Written for the remarkable mamas at Mama Says Om with thanks. They are truly an inspiration to all of us.