Peace starts within
I was born in Sydney on January 26, 1986.
When I was little, I didn’t know that my birthday was also known as 'Australia Day’. To me it was a day that was usually about cake, fireworks and lots of people being at the beach. As I grew up, I came to learn the 26th of January is a deeply painful time for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and for a growing number of Australians is not a day of celebration. In school I was taught the
26th of January marks the anniversary of the arrival of the British First Fleet in 1788. I now understand that this day is marked by devastation and the deepest loss.
Turning 32 this week, and Australia Day rolling round once again, I find myself thinking about the idea of peace. There is an uncomfortableness within me as I write this blog, I am questioning my words as they are written from a place of personal experience and feeling instead of academic exploration. I wonder if I have the right to write these words? But as I write, there is a deeper sense within me that is present, telling me that these words are my truth and so I wonder if maybe they could also be yours? So I keep writing, as right now, it’s all I know.
It seems writing runs in my family. Many years ago my Dad wrote a book about his work in Russia with a personal development organisation called Insight Seminars. There is a passage in his book about the day I was born, it reads:
It seems writing runs in my family. Many years ago my Dad wrote a book about his work in Russia with a personal development organisation called Insight Seminars. There is a passage in his book about the day I was born, it reads:
“Within seconds of Rosie arriving in the world I had her on my lap. Warmly wrapped in a little rug with her face visible and her eyes closed, my hands held her tiny head, not a sound. All I could feel was this remarkable peace. I sat and looked into her face.
Silence, peace.
That’s it I thought, peace. Rosie’s arrival is marked by peace.”
Years ago, before I had read this passage, I was standing in an Insight Seminar in Sydney embodying what it meant to me to be a peaceful warrior. As a young white woman, who at this time in my life was travelling between Sydney and south-west Uganda, I was exploring my role in the world. I was sweating and shaking with nerves as I spoke in front of this group of people, sharing my peaceful warrior performance. I hated public speaking. By my side was the 'sword' I had made that morning, a big green love heart covered in glitter. The words I spoke that day were inspired by the writing of Dan Millman:
“You haven't yet opened your heart fully, to life, to each moment. The peaceful warrior's way is not about invulnerability, but absolute vulnerability - to the world, to life, and to the Presence you felt. All along I've shown you by example that a warrior's life is not about imagined perfection or victory; it is about love. Love is a warrior's sword; wherever it cuts, it gives life, not death.”
Standing in front of my fellow seminar participants, with a favourite song of mine playing in the background, Michael Jackson's’ Heal the World, I caught a glimpse into the possibility of peace and the power of love. Often I can get caught up with grand visions and big ideas when it comes to peace. I imagine organisations and negotiations and big tables with jugs of water and translated conversations. All of these ideas draw me forward but they can also take me away from what I came to see that day in the seminar room as what I believe the birthplace of peace to be. While the context of the seminar room was anything but a warzone or conflicted territory, we were a group of people, holding for the absolute vulnerability that Dan speaks about above. It was in this place of vulnerability that we were able to access the most powerful tool I believe we have for peace...the human heart.
I wonder as I write, is it possible to know something externally if you have no experience of it internally? Peace within our world may be a collective, external experience, but where does peace stem from? I am exploring the idea that peace starts with me, it starts within me, and it starts within you too. And maybe it is from this place of personal peace that collective peace is possible. Lao Tzu speaks about this idea when he shares:
“If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbours.
If there is to be peace between neighbours,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.”
So as my 32nd birthday and Australia day approaches I check in with myself once again. I ask, how can I invite a deeper sense of peace into my heart this year and how can I extend peace into the world from this heart centered place, moment to moment, day to day. What does it really mean to walk this earth as a 'peaceful warrior'? I don’t have all the answers and I don't always get it right, but I am willing to journey to find out.
I see January
26th as an opportunity for peace. My invitation is for us to bring a deeper sense of peace into our hearts and the collective heart of our country. Australia, let us find the courage, let us fully acknowledge our past so that we may create a different future.
I believe peace on earth is possible.
It starts within me, it starts within you.
With love, Rosie.
2 Responses
Tracy Hedges
Invitation accepted. Ready to wield my peaceful warrior sword alongside you
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Kelsey
January 26, 2018
This moved me! I love your story-telling of standing up during the seminar with your green sword, sharing this quote about peace. You so beautifully point out how we need to bring it back home, bring it back to ourselves if we are to create a more peaceful world. Daily actions change the world in more complex ways that we can ever understand. ;)