What Peace Is and How to Spread It

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Lawrence and Rita Gelber, founders of I Declare World Peace.

As we sat at breakfast this morning discussing the coming week’s blog, we wandered into a discussion about the current political situation. Everyone is living under such tension, distress and divisiveness, and none of us really want that! It is crippling and destructive. Have you, like so many of us, asked yourself what you can do about it?

This brought us to the thread of today’s blog, and that is our message, our goal if you will; to spread peace one relationship at a time. We are dedicated to this goal and we want to talk today about what that means in our life and what it can mean in yours!

Peace is a palpable presence that we live within our relationship. It is not a concept. Peace is not the absence of conflict, strife or disharmony. However, many people think of peace as an absence: your spouse takes the kids to the zoo and you have the house to yourself, the internet is down and your argumentative neighbor is on vacation. In reality, peace is an actual state of being of its own, not just defined by what it is not.

As with most things, it is something that must be experienced to be known. Peace in our relationship is a tangible reality of tranquility, love, unity, connection with each other and with the world. An object can be still or moving; they are co-equal attributes. We might think of stillness as an absence of movement, but equally so, movement is an absence of stillness. In a similar way, peace has its own attributes; it is not merely an absence of conflict.

Peace is a state of being, not just an absence of conflict. #relationships #quote Share on XBy living our daily life together and practicing what we have written about, like total acceptance, presence and love, we reap the benefit of these practices. The benefit is that sublime, transcendent and often elusive quality we call peace. When you tap into this, you will become filled with a joy which cannot be contained. It becomes a solid foundation for walking through life, making decisions, handling problems and growing in the ways of peace.

Once you actually experience this state, you can do nothing but take it out into the world. It has a momentum of its own. Once you have the slightest taste of the flavor of peace, you can take that and offer it in every relationship: friends, family, strangers. Wear that warm silent zone like a cape around you. Surprise, it’s really hard to do! It’s so easy to react to other peoples’ drama, to play the roles we’ve learned and the roles other people expect from us. Yet every failure is a lesson for next time.

Face all relationships, starting with your intimate ones, with the qualities that lead you to peace. Get to know and love yourself. Treat others to your presence. Listen to them, hear them, acknowledge them, treat them with respect and honor. Love them.

The world needs this now more than anything else. Make your relationship a living hothouse of peace. By offering peace one step at a time, those steps will add up to millions of millions, and that is how peace spreads throughout the world.

Tell your friends!