For most, peace doesn’t come easily. And it won’t arrive without inviting it in, then giving it your full attention. It requires patience, indiscriminate kindness and a calm heart. Relaxing into the now allows a sense of peace to flourish, sparking ideas and creating personal, regional and global solutions beyond anything you thought possible.

Agitation, in contrast, feeds on harshness. After years of exposure, we don’t even notice how often we are annoyed. Disrespect has become acceptable, as long as it is for a “worthy” cause. Those unwilling to engage in the grit of criticism must be weak, lazy, ill advised or apathetic. Mocking someone who we feel deserves it fills us with a sense of virtue, of accomplishment. And it’s never enough. The ego likes to repeat, over and over, what bothers us. Like an old LP, this etches a groove into our awareness, making it much easier to settle back into that familiar place when something goes any way we believe is the wrong way.

There is a serious flaw in working to improve the world by arguing against others.   We weren’t born with such prejudice. We’ve learned it, which means we can unlearn it. Spend time with a small child or an animal. They can look at something with curiosity instead of decisiveness. They don’t project what  the encounter will mean to their future. They just look. Their intelligence arises from somewhere outside of thought. Without reasoning, they are the wisest of teachers.

I don’t stand in the way of those insisting to be frustrated, but serenity can be yours if you choose to spend quiet time alone. Question your beliefs and admit to your prejudices. Dismantle your ego and ignore the inner voices that insist being right is most important. Be brave. It’s easy to love lovable people. Experience what it takes to love those who aren’t. Only then will it be time to act. Armed with the most creative ideas and plans to accomplish them, there will be no stopping you and no one will be injured along the way.

This is a new kind of revolution. No need to step forward until you’re ready. Navigating a peaceful path takes a different kind of strength. A heart filled with torment is unfit to walk in fierce grace.