Peace Is Personal
When my sister left this life, the last words she gave me were, “Happy Forth.”
The text came through twice. It was July 4th, 2014.
Like the title of this post indicates, I’m about to get personal.
Peace is personal.
Peace didn’t just happen to me overnight. I didn’t buy it. I didn't inherit it. I didn’t move to a town that fabricates it for its residents. (Mind you, I’ve moved over 50 times. I can validate that neither big cities, nor small towns, or even intentional living communities can give people something they are not already co-creating with their own words, deeds, and silent intentions.)
I learned about my personal peace by walking forth and asking myself questions about peace and how to have it—
What does peace mean to me?
What does it feel like?
What does it look like in my personal life?
The thing is, I had to WANT it to ASK for it to then figure out how to ACHIEVE it in my life. And THEN take the steps—walk the walk—that aligned with the reality of peace (that I finally decided I truly, truly wanted) and CONTINUE to take daily steps in alignment with PEACE.
I’ll be real with you—I’ve been through a lot.
My last article talked about flipping the script on our personal narratives. (I was a Storyteller.) I will take a stand here and say plainly that flipping the script on our personal tragedies, our personal worries, our personal fears, and on our personal inhibitions and limitations is a prerequisite to peace.
Until we flip the script on the thoughts, words, and ideas that have us feeling the feelings we don’t want to feel, the feelings won’t go away by themselves. Feeling are roadmaps to what is happening in our personal psychology and mental landscape. This landscape doesn’t change itself.
It is upon each of us to architect our own inner landscape.
This is why I came here to share about my Peace Walk journey.
I’ll be real with you—I’ve been through a lot. What I share is personal and not what I saw myself wanting to share with the world when I was a child dreaming about joy and success in my life. Yet today I understand what joy and success mean for me. They go hand in hand with the experience of peace.
I made the decision to build peace for myself. I share my journey here for other builders.
For me, joy and success and peace are meant to be shared in community. Along with love and all the good things. I’ve learned that when I look around and don’t see the joy and love and peace I desire, it’s on me to build it. Share it. Recruit other builders to collaborate.
Yes, I’m here recruiting. Peace is personal.
My solicitation is simply this: If you are here reading my words, I ask that you simultaneously think about your own personal desire for and understanding of peace in your own life. I’m not a TV show or a reality series. This isn’t a rodeo or a circus act. Please don’t treat my words as entertainment. I write for the current and future builders of peace. I write to show my vulnerability and share that it’s okay to be vulnerable with yourself. You can be vulnerable in private before you make any choices or say anything to others socially about your choices. Take your time. Peace is personal.
When my sister passed away, I knew my life would never be the same. The grief was unbearable. Peace became the foremost desire in my life.
It’s now December 2024—ten and a half years later—and I was just thinking that the first couple weeks of December went by quickly. On Friday, I didn’t even know it was Friday until someone at work said “Happy Friday.”
The cliché-ness of saying “time flies” or “I can’t believe this year is almost over” has always felt uncomfortable to me (along with small talk).
What I’m slowing getting to is that I wrote a memoir about my personal path of claiming peace for myself. After lollygagging a few months (okay the whole year), I’m ready to get personal and open up about it.
I share it for the peace builders.
I share it for the community builders.
I share it for the joy builders.
I share it for the opportunity to “Give Peace A Chance” (yes, as cliché as that may be).
Beginning next year, I will start publishing my memoir “Peace Walk Now” in chapters for paid subscribers. Click below for an annual subscription promo of $25 for 2025.
Thank you for reading and collaborating to build the peace we wish to see in the world.
You’ll be hearing from me in the New Year.
Happy Forth!