Dear friends,
Think Peace, Be Peace: this is my message for you this Christmas and I hope it stays in your hearts and lasts forever.
Our wold is living an escalate of violence, intolerance, and terror. If you are reading this message you are probably lucky of not being affected to a higher degree by much of that. But other brothers and sisters are.
People like you and me. with happy lives, with dreams and feelings, that one day see everything they know upside down because somebody bombed their house. Because they are forced to leave their home and country due to war or extreme conditions. Because their kids or parents are killed by an extremist armed with a weapon. Because they are threatened, injured or prosecuted for not professing a certain religion or being from a certain political party. Because they get mistreated or abused because they belong to the wrong gender. Or ridiculed because they are different. Or incarcerated because they speak up to tell the truth.
The reality is, our human kind comes with the inherent flaws of selfishness, pride, need for power and control, and an incredible inability to see beyond ourselves. This is not new. Throughout history the same problems that afflicted us in the past are affecting us right now. The difference is that now the weapons that we are building are bigger and more powerful. And the effects can shake the very grounding of our own planet. Transform air that we breath. The waters of the oceans. And everything that we know in the blink of an eye.
We are one. The suffering of the other, even if we prefer to ignore it, is our own suffering. Or it could be one day. When we open our eyes to this vision we realize that there is really nothing more important than working for peace.
“But how do I work for peace?” you may ask. I have pondered over the same question many times. Leave everything and join a Peace organization? Donate money to those organizations? Praying for world peace? Those are all plausible and great alternatives. The truth is that, in the end, I still feel overwhelmed and with a big sense of frustration, because I still feel that the problem is so vast, so complex, so deep, and yet so urgent, that nothing that I may do could really affect, to the degree that I would wish, the complex web of motives, resentments, wounds, cultural conditioning, and selfishness that has brought us to where we are.
And so I pray God for answers, because I know that more than anyone He is concerned about this subject matter. And the only thing that comes to my heart is this simple phrase:
- Think peace, be peace.
And then I start understanding a little bit more clearly. Unless we are in a world leadership position we can’t force peace with external actions. Because for real peace to happen, we need to start by healing wounds, and that is a process that only happens inside our hearts. And the actions that can reach a heart are only the ones that come from another heart. And the only heart that we can use to reach to another heart is our own.
That means that I have to light the flame, the vibration and the intention of peace in my heart every day and let that energy guide my decisions and my actions. And think about healing the wounds that I have inflicted and avoid creating any new ones. Which is really the meaning of reconciliation.
And if I light that flame in my heart, and can make you light it in your heart as well, and you can pass this light to your kids, to your friends, to your neighbors, and they can pass it to their sons and daughters… maybe you and I can actively do something for peace in our planet.
I hope this Christmas the light of this peace ignites your heart and lasts forever!!
Think Peace, Be Peace.
Please help me pass this message out in any way that you can.
Thank you for reading.
Merry Christmas!!!
Raquel Cepeda | Houston Jazz Singer
Photo Credit: Helton Mendes
© Raquel Cepeda and www.raquelcepeda.com, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Raquel Cepeda, Houston Jazz Singer and www.raquelcepeda.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
© Raquel Cepeda Jazz Singer y www.raquelcepeda.com, 2016. El uso y duplicación no-autorizados de este material sin el permiso expreso y escrito de la autora o dueña de este sitio web están estrictamente prohibidos. Está autorizada la citación de frases y el compartir de los enlaces, entendiendo que se de crédito claro a Raquel Cepeda Houston Jazz Singer y www.raquelcepeda.com añadiendo de forma apropiada y específica la dirección al contenido original.
