Practice For Peace — An Inviting Narrative of Purpose

I’m glad for this little book, recently gifted to me. It’s a fine collection of quotes, phrases, images, and principles that fits nicely in my pocket. It’s pre-loved, by a person I admire for his ways in the world. And before him, by another younger man that I have deep respect for. It’s the kind of book that I’m enjoying reading, meditating upon, and randomly opening to a page.

“Instructors can impart only a fraction of the teaching.
It is through your own devoted practice
that the mysteries of the Art of Peace
are brought to life.”

I know the relationship that I have when I’m teaching — of trying to offer an important learned and practiced essence, then hoping or challenging people to stay with their learning. I also know the relationship that I have when I’m learning — of welcoming principle, then to try and practice in many circumstances.

I’m glad for a week’s worth of community and learning that has me seeing through a lens of “practicing for peace.” It’s conversations round a fire. It’s paddles in a canoe. It’s circled up time together as a whole group. It’s walks with one or two following aliveness of learning together. It’s a glass of wine in the evening to be quiet and full in heart of words not needing to be spoken. It’s remembering old stories.

I’m glad for a narrative that can hold many other narratives. Of purpose — peaceful co-existence with self, with other, and with circumstance. A narrative of practice — being and doing. A narrative of invitation — that recognizes consciousness yearned for in all era’s of time.