Creating Peaceful Solutions

We each have solutions for peace inside of us. To tap into these solutions means sometimes listening to the still quiet voice within. It means letting go and waiting for the answers to come. Each and every day we make decisions and choices about how we live our lives. For many of us, we have wanted to choose peace, but it never seemed to be the right time, the right situation, or the right reaction. Creating peaceful solutions is more than just hoping that peace will enter the world. It means we live and practice the actions of peace every day. For peace to be present, it needs to be an active enterprise. We realize perhaps now that humans can no longer ignore the suffering of others -- whether from hunger, disease, oppression, abuse, or economic hardship. Ultimately it is the allowing and permitting of suffering to persist on the planet that enables conflict and violence to flourish. The deep intention to end suffering when and where we can will change the world. It has been written that all attack is a "cry for help." Cries for help ring out throughout the world everyday. They are asking us not for hate, but for healing. These cries are asking not for military arms, but arms of compassion. If we wonder where we can begin and who we can help, let us begin with the children. For helping and healing the suffering children of today will open up the possibility for a brighter future for them and for all of us. Then we can help others, not by seeing them as helpless or victims, but helping them stand up and find their own strength. Solutions for peace are as practical as they are powerful and they will make a difference in the world.

Here are five solutions for peace. Imagine and create your own.

1 - Help a child in need: educate, clothe, and feed the children. Children are the world's hope and future. They also expect the adult world to take care of them. We have lived in a world that has too often ignored children's needs at its own peril. Children need love, affection, and caring. They also need to learn -- not just facts, but wisdom. Not just in order to work at a job, but to enhance the world. They are more valuable than any price tag we can place on them.

2 - Speak out against violence -- do not accept the unacceptable. Write articles, carry signs, be clear that violence is not an acceptable way for righting wrongs or solving problems. Expressing anger is not the same as acting out violence -- sometimes repressed anger can be worse than expressing anger in healthy, non-violent ways.

3 - Speak positively about peace -- affirm that peace is the solution to humanity's problems. Write articles, carry signs, be clear that peace can carry the day and solve the world's problems like nothing else can. We can show others how peace has worked positively in our lives.

4 - Listen to others -- especially those with whom we do not agree. People who stop listening to each other are fanning sparks of anger into flames of rage. Listening does not mean agreeing. It means being willing to hear the other side, and letting them have a voice and a space. It means we each have a perspective -- dissent and disagreement are the foundation of democratic governments. While we may hope that others agree with us, we can choose to allow others to be themselves and have whatever views they hold as dear.

5 - Practice a love and appreciation for life. Spirituality is the practice of caring for life -- our life and the lives of others. We may not all agree on religious ideas, but everyone can agree that life is the one thread we all have in common. The only question about any act we choose to engage in is whether it is life-enhancing or life-impairing. Does it improve our health, our well-being, our happiness, and the health, well-being, and happiness of others? This is not a question to ask lightly. For many actions may seem life-enhancing in the short-run are actually harmful and destructive in the long-term.

These are suggested solutions for peace. Find your own. Share them with the world.