Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Finding Peace

I had been thinking of writing this blog even before the shootings that have taken place.  Anger and vengeance are destructive.  Everyone has been faced with an injustice at one point in time, but that doesn't mean that it does any good to lash out and respond with violence.  An eye for an eye may have worked in the Old Testament days, but all it does now is make everyone else blind.

There are many wrongs that are done that aren't crimes.  There are many crimes that are committed that people will get away with.  Ultimately there is only a limited sense of justice in this world.  There is no such thing as closure.  To punish someone else for what you perceive as a wrong done to you, won't restore the way things were before the wrong. 

We have to live in a world full of hate and division, but when we allow anger to overwhelm us in response then no good comes from that.  When I feel anger, I deal with it by either meditating, going for a walk, or by going for a hike.  Anger as I've learned does more harm then good.  Having a vindictive spirit won't make you feel any better about what has been done to you.  Recognize and accept your own powerlessness.   To react in anger is to punish yourself for the wrong that has been done to you.

Everyone does wrong at some point whether it is in their own eyes, the eyes of society, or of another person.  The best that you can do is to avoid anger and to show the world that you can return good for bad.  In other words, do what is right going forward.  In such a way, the world will become a better place for all.

There are many and have been many who have been wrongly accused and sentenced to prison or death.  In reality, two hundred years from now, they will be less than a memory.  For those who lived long ago and suffered, there is no justice.  They have passed already.  When we have passed the same will be true for us.  The only peace you can find in this world is within yourself.  Let go of the past and of  whatever feelings of anger and vengeance you hold, because to hold on to that will keep you from finding peace in this life.


I say these things based on my own experiences and life.  Sometimes, it is all too easy to allow the past to haunt us, to feel the pain of memories of suffering, but to learn to put aside those memories and that anger while easier said than done is the only way to real peace. 

There is prejudice and envy now that is visible, but when you learn to put aside your hate, you will learn to live.  The Black Lives Matter movement isn't saying that only black lives matter, but that they do matter.  There are many who will choose to paint a picture in their own minds of what they stand for, but you don't have to do that.  The officers that passed that dark day in Dallas gave their lives trying to ensure peace.  Do not allow their deaths to be in vain, by reacting in hatred and anger.