The above heading comes from A Course in Miracles. It was also put into a beautiful song by Oman & Shanti. As we enjoy Memorial Day this weekend let us remember, appreciate and honor all those who have given their service to Freedom.
Captain Paul Chappel is an international peace educator. He graduated from West Point and was deployed to Iraq. He lectures and gives workshops on peace leadership and peace literacy. He wrote an amazing book Soldiers of Peace in which he outlines we must become literate and embody the Art of Peace. He writes that peace is not a belief, it is a lived skill, just as Gandhi says there is no way to peace, peace is the way.
This is a perception shift, a mind-shift. In (John 12:48) we read that Jesus cried aloud: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. and whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.”
What is darkness but the human ego warring over territory, power, poverty, scarcity.
As we wrestle with the struggles of the world today, let us remember that if we lift ourselves up into the consciousness of our I Am, we will receive wisdom and understanding of our interconnectedness and if we wait, we will receive guidance on what is ours to do at this moment to embody and apply the life skills of waging peace.
Paul Chappel writes there are seven forms of peace literacy for us to embody.
1. Literacy in our Shared Humanity;
2. Literacy in the Art of Listening:
3. Literacy in the Art of Waging Pace
4. Literacy in the Art of Listening,
5. Literacy in the Nature of Reality,
6 Literacy in our Responsibility to Animals
7 Literacy in our responsibility to creation.
If this sounds daunting, start with one. All of us can do this if we follow the teachings of Jesus and lift ourselves up from the world. For he said to us : In the word, you face persecution but take courage; I have overcome the world.
In Oneness, Happy Memorial Day
Rev Janice
