What exactly is peace? And what does peace actually feel like?
Peace is a balanced state of inner and outer harmony that we all aspire to and cherish. However, creating peace requires us to feel safe enough to listen, grounded enough to remain curious and strong enough to encounter difference without immediately treating it as a threat.
Peacebuilding requires courage, discipline and the willingness to protect human dignity. Differences between people and nations will always exist. The question is whether we have the courage and discipline to engage those differences through dialogue and mutual respect.
Creating Peace Through Dialogue
At The Mediation Center of the Coastal Empire, we’re focused on creating peace through dialogue. We believe that conflict is inevitable, but violence
is not. Mediation requires creating enough space within a disagreement for people to remain human to one another.
Peace truly starts with each of us. Then, it moves outward to the person across the dinner table, to our neighbors and into our families as well as our workplaces, schools and communities. Peacebuilders need not look, worship, or vote alike. They do not need to agree about everything. What connects them is a shared belief that encounters with other human beings matter.
After all, peace is active, not passive. It doesn’t mean avoiding conflict, ignoring injustice or remaining silent when someone is harmed. Sometimes peacebuilding requires saying “no” or standing firmly against injustice while refusing to surrender another person’s humanity.
Across history, people from different traditions have chosen this path: Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Thich Nhat Hanh, Mother Teresa, Jesus of Nazareth, Muhammad, Rumi the poet, along with countless peacebuilders whose names we will never know.
The Power of Peace
Peace may seem like an extraordinary aspiration, but it can also feel impossibly far away. How does someone in Savannah respond to wars happening thousands of miles away? What can one person possibly do about geopolitical conflict, terrorism, injustice or generations of hatred?
Thankfully, peace does not require us to begin there. We can start where we are. Perhaps the first conflict we are each responsible for addressing is the one occurring within ourselves. Most of us know that conflict: the incessant warring between who we are and who we think we should be. We criticize ourselves, replay mistakes, carry resentments and demand perfection. Sometimes we speak to ourselves in ways we would never speak to another human being.
It can be strategic and healing to ask yourself: How do I practice dialogue with myself? Do I approach my shortcomings with curiosity and compassion or with judgment and animosity? Do I extend to myself the dignity I hope to extend to others?
Inner peace is not self-indulgence. It is a daily practice, a steadfast commitment and a learned skill. When we continually practice hostility toward ourselves, it becomes much harder to become compassionate listeners with others.
Peace in the Park
Ultimately, global peace may feel beyond our reach, but the next conversation with your neighbor, co-worker, or family member is not. You can choose curiosity over certainty. Dialogue over contempt. Compassion over humiliation. Repair over retaliation.
We can each become stronger without becoming harder. And when the problems of the world feel too enormous, we can return to the place where peacebuilding has always been possible: within each of us.
Here in Savannah, we will shine a spotlight on local peacebuilders and celebrate the power of community at The Mediation Center’s annual Peace in the Park event at Daffin Park on Sunday, Sept. 27 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. This free, family-friendly community gathering will include live music, food trucks, a peace walk, a human peace sign formation, yoga, kids activities and more.
We hope you’ll join us on Sept. 27 to celebrate connection, unity and the enduring power of peace.
Dr. Aimee Bellmore is the Executive Director of The Mediation Center of the Coastal Empire in Savannah, Ga.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Finding peace in a world full of conflict. Event planned in Daffin Park
