If I want peace, I must make peace with war. If I cannot endure someone’s fearful rejection of what is without fearfully rejecting THAT, I am doing no better. I am just perpetuating the vicious cycle of war. I will never experience peace that way.
Peace is always there. It’s what I am before I have a thought and believe it. So it cannot be taken from me, only temporarily overlooked when I am distracted with my story.
To choose peace at will requires the ability to experience apparent war without returning it.
Peace cannot be achieved by going to war with war (that’s still war). Peace can only be achieved by meeting war with love - not liking war or preferring war or seeking to sustain war, but meeting war the way a compassionate parent can so love a violently out of control child that they refuse to return fire.
“Defense is the first act of war.”