As we pray these days for peace and unity in our areas of worship and in our world, we consider the words of Judyth Hill in 2001, advising us to wage peace:
Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble, breathe out whole buildings...
Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children...
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen, and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace also with your listening: hearing sirens, pray aloud.
Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothespins, clean rivers.
Play music, learn the word thank you in three languages…
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries, imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty...
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious…
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don’t wait another minute.
Merciful God, we trust in Your presence as we engage the challenging work of waging peace and unity.—AMEN.
(“Wage Peace” by Judyth Hill)
