Painting-A Gift of Peace

A Gift of Peace

Today is Memorial Day, a holiday set aside to remember those Americans who fought and never returned to their earthly homes. When I think of warriors, I think of peace. In my decade-long social work career, I worked with children and adults touched by violence. I came to see warriors and survivors of violence as the greatest teachers of peace, because they have experienced the absence of peace.

How can we best honor the warriors who didn’t return to their loved ones? We can help create a more peaceful world where sons and daughters, husbands and wives, lovers and beloved have no need to resolve conflict with violence. Every one of us can help bring more peace into the world. Here’s my suggestion:

Offer yourself unconditional forgiveness and love.

No matter where you stand.

No matter what you experienced in the past.

No matter what others tell you.

No matter what conflict you have witnessed or inflicted.

Open your arms to yourself. Call a truce between all conflicting thoughts, feelings, and memories within you.

Begin anew with a minute or two a day. Dedicate it to peace. Just sit down and dedicate the minute to peace. Let all thoughts of conflict, struggle, hatred, blame and judgment leave your mind. Sit quietly and imagine peace. Meditate on it. Soon you will find it easier and easier to place your focus on peace. In this way, days add up to weeks and months and eventually years. Offer yourself the gift of peace.

I have taught meditation to abused children and adults. I have seen them make peace an active verb, a moment-to-moment choice creating home in their heart. 

This painting, A Gift of Peace, is my offering as a token of thanks for those who walked the warrior’s path, so that the rest of us could walk our own path. We can choose to return home. We can choose peace.

Mixed media on 10” x 20” cradled wood panel. Layers include mono print collage, acrylic, graphite, oil stick, oil paint and cold wax.

© Claudia Rose, Ph.D.

www.claudiaroseart.com