Trying to understand why we choose the reactions we choose, and accept that we CAN be more in control of those choices.

This is the question weaving its way around and through my mind.

So far, I have no answer other than: we refuse to accept responsibility because it is easier to blame others for causing our reactions, rather than admit that we chose them.

Look at Osama bin Laden, blaming everyone outside his country for its problems. Look at the Palestinians and Israelis, each blaming the other and refusing to stop the 'eye for an eye' way of life. Look at India and Pakistan. People blame others and take revenge because it is the easiest choice for them to make. They do not have to accept any responsibility at all.

How much more difficult for them to make a choice for peace, to learn to step back and understand why they choose anger, revenge and hate. How much more difficult to try and understand themselves. So much easier to blame everyone else. Does this make them strong? No. In fact, it makes them weak. The sane people of the world are not impressed by weak people too selfish to accept responsibility for their reactions and emotions.

Somewhere, some time, the forgiveness must begin.

Who are the strongest men in the world? People like Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, the Dalai Lama. THESE are the strong people of the world. They chose peace. And they do not state that the price of that peace must be the deaths of children, women and men. They do not say that ten thousand deaths are acceptable. They do not say that ONE death is acceptable.

Humankind has such great potential! But so long as effort and money is poured into weapons and wars, that potential will never be reached.

What can we do? You and I can choose peace. You and I can take responsibility for our emotions, our reactions to life and to people, and WE can change. And when enough of us make this step, we will be at the forefront of a wave that will sweep through humanity.

WE are the change the world is waiting for. Can we sit back any longer and watch the insanity of the world without making a choice for peace?

No, we can't.

When YOU live with peace, you make it easier for your brother to live with peace. And when you both live with peace, you make it easier for the entire neighborhood to live with peace. And when an entire neighborhood can live with peace, you make it easier for a nation to live with peace. And when just one nation can live with peace, they make it easier for THEIR neighbors...until the entire world lives with peace.

(I am by no means finished with this topic...but these are my thoughts for now.)


You are my brother
Your pain
is my pain
your suffering
is my suffering
your joy
is my joy
your death
is my death