Articles

Peace begins at home 

    -Barbara Morrison

Take care of your corner of the world.  This means, let’s all start with taking care of those closest to us – our nuclear families and our extended family members, our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues.  This does not mean turning a blind eye to the rest of the world.  In fact, I would argue that it is our responsibility to know what is going on in the rest of the world and to assist where we can.  Of course, we can do this in various ways – financial donations to humanitarian agencies, voluntourism, political and policy advocacy and by having an open, non-judgmental and intelligent mind. 

This article, however, focuses on how to take care of your corner of the world.  Peace begins at home.  Take care of those you love, even with all the differences you experience in each other’s personalities.  Be generous with your care, time, quality of attention and commitment.  Look for the beautiful, unique or admirable qualities of each other, even when the difficult qualities emerge..  To think that we are not difficult ourselves is short-sighted…too often we think about how difficult someone else is…and that indeed may be true.  But when we take moral high ground and overlook our own shortcomings, we start judging others. This breeds division, separateness and alienation.

The world has become smaller in the sense that many people are able to change their location geographically.  More and more, family members live apart from one another causing estrangement or lack of connection.  Sometimes family members live in the same city, estranged from one another or with broken connections.  Sometimes there may be good and necessary reasons for this.  But in other situations, there is simply a lack of care and attention.  People often take for granted the value of the relationships they have with those closest to them and may not nurture these relationships.  Or they may take liberty with how they treat those closest to them. 

Today, I want to encourage everyone to be mindful of the relationships they do have and to cultivate a grateful mind and heart.  Be proactive in taking care of all of these relationships.   Think before you speak.  You can’t take something back once it’s said.  Think before you behave in a harmful way.  You can’t take that back either.  Yes, you can apologize, repair and atone and this will be necessary, but to set an intention to pause before you say or do something harmful will facilitate more respectful relationships.

Namaste....