Peace is possible

Peace is possible.

You know how I know?

Because I too get scared or greedy or judgmental or want others to change to accommodate me. I too get angry at people I don’t love, and even angrier at people I love. And I know from experience that I don’t have to push those feelings into others, in violence. I can hold them. Own what is mine. Articulate the source of what is shared and of others. And then let it go.

I am not naive. Not entirely, anyway. I know that what we are seeing is not just a massive group of people pushing feelings and discomfort onto others in violence. But regardless of the power dynamics and the geo-politics and the messed-up senses of entitlement and superiority, it is also that. Each person gets to own their part of that.

I hear what you are thinking. No amount of meditation or Kumbaya can overcome oppression gone this far, destruction this all-encompassing. You are not wrong. But neither will any amount of politicking or negotiation: we know this, because we have lived it.

I know that peace is possible in the space where meditation and negotiation end, where personal and collective accountability meet, where honest conversations grounded in our bodies exist. This morning, I am holding the grief, the despair, the deep sorrow for all of us, in hopes that we find that space. Soon.