A.J. Muste, one of the founding members of the Fellowship for Reconciliation, once said: “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” Peace is so much more than the mere absence of war and conflict. Peace calls us to reach for our highest potential in service to all of humankind. Peace calls us to respect the diversity and differences between us and to embrace the commonality. Peace calls us to lift up our voices and sing in harmonies that resonate in the heart and the ears of the divine. Peace is mutuality and unconditional positive regard. Peace allows us to grow through the conflicts that will confront us as individuals and as nations and establish relationships based on love and not fear, on abundance and not scarcity, on acceptance of different perspectives and not judgment, and on being in the present moment without suffering from the anger, pain and resentment of the past or the anxieties and worries about an uncertain future. Peace is the only assurance of survival. Peace is life.
David Isaiah Hedelman
