Celebrate Peace!
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace”… St. Francis of Assisi
Today we celebrate the International Day of Peace. A day of cease fire and non-violence! A day to make peace where there is strife! A day to choose love over hate and participate in world repair!
As the International Day of Peace approached, our World Changer Clubs were engaged in growing their awareness of how the presence of peace is instrumental in finding solutions to global challenges. We must first choose to be people of peace in order to promote peace. This idea was illustrated beautifully in the parable of the feather pillow which I shared with each group.
There is an old parable about a wise sage that once lived in a small village in China, and people would come to him from all around for advice and help with their lives.
One day a business man from the neighboring village became jealous of the wise man’s popularity and success. So the business man began to spread rumors about the sage and gossip about the integrity of his character. Before long, people began to have doubts about the sage and less and less people went to visit him.
The business man, upon seeing the damage he had caused, felt remorse and went to the wise sage for forgiveness.
‘Please forgive me. I should never have spread those rumors, I was wrong!’
The sage replied, ‘Yes, I will forgive you, but I need you to do something for me.
So the man said that he would and the wise sage asked, “Do you have a feather pillow at your house?” The man said, “Of course I do, I am a wealthy business man.” The sage told him to go home and get it and bring it back.” The man did and the sage said , “Now cut the pillow open and scatter its contents upon the market square and you will be forgiven.”
The man thought – well this is easy, and agreed to the task. He took the pillow to the market square, cut it open with a knife and emptied the contents onto the floor. Within seconds, the feathers were carried up by the wind and scattered in every direction and over the nearby fields.
He then returned to the sage and said, ‘I have done as you asked, may I now be forgiven?’
The sage shook his head, ‘Wait, there is another part you must complete. Now you must return to the market and collect every single feather that you released and return the pillow to me.’
‘How is that possible, the feathers have blown beyond reach, and who knows where they all might be?’
‘And so it is with harmful speech’, replied the sage. ‘Like the feathers, once they are blown to the wind you cannot take them back, for there is no knowing how far they may have travelled or what damage they may have done.’
This parable reminds us that our words and actions make an impact. Sometimes that impact reaches farther than we could ever imagine. When we choose to be people of peace our impact heals, helps and promotes life!
Our World Changers know that encouraging others, reducing hunger, building homes for needy families, empowering women and girls globally, caring for the sick, educating children and practicing environmental stewardship all promote peace. Every act of kindness and every act of forgiveness brings peace to a hurting world.
How will you promote peace today?
Peace Poles made by CDS middle school World Changer Club