#UULent. Word for today, March 3, 2021: peace.
What we pay attention to grows.
Do you pay attention to what peace feels like?
If you are only listening to the voices in your head that criticize, that tell you what’s wrong– with yourself and others and with the whole world– can you grow peace?
If you spend all your time working, being in the hustle and bustle, filling every hour with busyness, and never allowing yourself to rest– can you grow peace?
If you pay attention only to what you have or don’t have, what you look like, what others look like, and what more you want, constantly judging– can you grow peace?
As Unitarian Universalists, we covenant to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all (that’s our 6th UU Principle).
A covenant is a promise that we make. If we promise to promote peace, then we need to pay attention to it within ourselves.
So ask yourself, what does peace look and feel like for me?
Is it the birds as they sing the sun up on a foggy morning?
Is it a gentle breeze across your face as you journey into the woods?
Is it watching your child as they sleep in the beauty of nature?
Is it a fire on a chilly night with your best friends?
Is it singing through our joys and sorrows with a beloved community in our spiritual home? (yes, we will return again to this soon!)
Pay attention to those moments! Take the time to live into them so that you know what peace truly is. And then go out into the world and build community knowing what you are striving towards– peace for all.
Pay attention to peace, embody it, grow it.