Don’t think for a blue minute
peace lies in dreamy eyes of smiling Buddha
blinking across fields of pink blossoms.
Peace is no quaint scene,
no warm aroma of homemade cookies.
Nor, sound of luggage placed on holy
ground.
Peace is constant motion,
careful balance,
endless vigil,
rush of a purposeful journey.
Peace is not the people
who sit quietly by
as civil injustice, office politics,
and environmental degradation
unfold before them.
Peace is the courage
to speak out,
shatter comfort,
demand justice.
Peace is not the people around you suddenly
linking arms and taking up song.
Peace is the cumbersome process of
controlling your own temper
so you can smile at ornery colleagues and
small children who contradict you.
That Buddha is not napping
in his field of delicate blossoms.
He’s resting from a conflict resolution
conference
with his roommate.
He is considering
the next move he will make
to stir petals into beauty.
Wake up to the people around you, he calls.
Steady yourself for a long life of
patience, sincere communication,
Bravery, love.
When you hear him,
you will notice the vital peace
of an artist’s hand working paint
onto huge canvases.
~ © Kimberly Wilder *. Reprinted by permission.
* The most important thing to Kimberly Wilder and to her husband Ian – both writers and and poets – is the end of all wars. Kimberly’s poem, Painted Blossoms, was submitted to Valentine Peace Project and accompanied many of the flowers gifted to residents and visitors of Amsterdam on February 14, 2010.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In Ethics for a New Millennium (p. 203), the Dalai Lama writes:
Peace is not something which exists independently of us, nor is war. It is true that certain individuals – political leaders, policymakers, army generals – do have particularly grave responsibilities in respect to peace. However, these people do not come from nowhere. They are not born and brought up in outer space. Like us, they are nourished by their mother’s milk and affection. They are members of our human family and have been nurtured within the society which we as individuals have helped create. Peace in the world thus depends on peace in the hearts of individuals. This in turn depends on us all practicing ethics by disciplining our response to negative thoughts and emotions and developing basic spiritual qualities.
This week’s image ~ above right ~ Serenade (artistic rendition).
Thumbnail image ~ September Roses (artistic rendition).
