Such a simple word...
Such a beautiful word......
With wonderful calming undertones....
Such complexity
So unreachable......
I was asked once, in a Montessori Peace Education class, to define peace. Although I received an A for my answer I was not totally convinced I could truly define this complex word in it's root form. It sounded so easy......until.................we all tried to answer it.....
Now today, 2 years later, as I watched my 4....yes 4....boys, I felt more drained than usual.......it did not help to have another 4 neighbor boys, who have spent their every waking moment this summer at my house playing in their true valor. Rolling, jumping, thumping, wrestling, throwing, posturing............
Ah.......
Peace.......
What is it?
It is freedom.......
What it is not........
It is not.........being free from....
noise
excitement
energy
laughter
screaming
running
differences
likenesses
friendships
foes
compromises
competition
What is it?
Peace.......IS being free of........
winning
oppression
shame
perception
judgment
impression
rightness
It is the ability within yourself to be able to accept others around you as they learn the path to their peace and what it is, and what it is not.
What I would not do for a day, in the life of home schooling 4 boys and their friends, to have a day of "peace and quiet".......
Then again......what does that mean?
Don't have.....
children
friends
a spouse
siblings
mothers or fathers
in-laws
Peace is not the right to be left alone.....Nor would we want it that way..
Peace, it IS replenishing your being, having that moment of solitude, so you may rejuvenate yourself with nature around you.....ironically............................
Peace is playing the silence game.......
As Montessori perceived it.....
To teach to listen to ones own heart.
(May you find your own peace in your life as you journey through all it has to offer......)
