We have had many reminders this year that peace is not the absence of discontent, nor is it the acceptance of injustice. It is not a passive thing, Peace. Rather, it is a relationship in which we engage.
To be in relationship is, by definition, to interact in ways that have meaning to both parties involved. To interact. To... inter...act.
To be peaceful is to act for what is between us.
Civil Rights leader, John Lewis called this kind of action "good trouble, necessary trouble".
It is action in resistance to and in the face of hegemonic structures; systems like white supremacy and patriarchy that push us away from true and equal relationships with one another.
A favorite quote of mine is by aboriginal activist and artist Lilla Watson and she reminds us of this our inherent equality when she says, “ If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
This is relationship. We work in order to honor what is between us.
Dr. King knew this truth as do so many of our brothers and sisters taking action in the defense of their own inherent worth, and the inherent worth of every human.
The truth is that one is not free until all are free. And we all have work to do.
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My prayer and meditation today is this:
In me there is the courage to create peace within myself and I will work to create it.
Between us there is the love of one another that will create peaceful interactions and we will work to interact with love.
Among us there is the determination that we will have peaceful communities and we will act to build them.
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To engage with us in the work of being in right relationship within, between, and among one another, please click the following link. https://www.hopespringsinstitute.org/programs