Every ocean is made up of multitudes of drops of water.
A drop of water is so small it is lost in an ocean unless a huge number of drops of water combing together to make a wave, a huge wave, or even a tsunami. It all starts with a drop of water.
In the fall of 2007 a group of children challenged themselves to write "pledges of peace" on crops of water cut out of construction paper. They committed to being polite, nice, pleasant, kind, thoughtful, and compassionate toward everyone regardless of anything.
Drops of water combine to make a wave of peace in the world. The violence in homes, neighborhoods, and the world is like a tsunami of violence that threatens life as we know it.
Systems theory tells us that change happens not when big things create big changes but when little nearly unnoticeable acts or attitudes are begun in a small way by little things a huge change can result. This is the goal of this blog for peacerrippers of the world to unite.
I invite you to sign on an be part of the wave for peace by committing to be loving and kind toward everyone you meet, to do intention acts of saying hello, assisting a person in need, smiling, being friendly to everyone you come in contact with whether you know them or not.
Imagine if every person on earth simply committed to be loving, friendly, kind, and compassionate to everyone. In our homes, churches, mosques, temples, communities, nations and world peaceripplers would be like drops of water in the sea of violence creating a wave of peace that would produce a sea of glass in which we would see ourselves as we are and change into the reflection of peace seen in that sea. We would live conscious of others, caring for others, and cared for by others. We would drive more conscientiously, live more cooperatively, smile more fully, walk more humbly, love more universally, and be more peacefully present in the world.
If we follow the lead of these children. If we all commit to intentional and deliberate attitudes of compassion and acts of kindness we can create drops of water that unite to create a tsunami of peace in our world for our day.
Will you join a peace movement begun by a handful of children in an elementary school in western Massachusetts?
Rev. Donald Paine
October 2007
