See the Light Within

Click here to listen to today’s Daily Power Prayer for Seeing the Light:

Many times in the day I am offered a choice between violence and nonviolence.  It used to be that the peaceful, nonviolent choices seemed unthinkable, too hard for me to contemplate.

I believed only a wimp would let someone cut them off in traffic and not blow their horn.  How will those people learn if I let them get away with it?

If the service in a restaurant is bad and I don’t make a big fuss, how will they ever be motivated to change?  If I forgive my sister for what she said and did to me then I’m not protecting myself.  If I sit down and eat a big bag of chips then the way to prevent it from happening again is to berate myself until I feel sick and ashamed.  As a child I was punished if I did something wrong, that way I’d remember the hurt and not do it again.

There are so many ways people have been taught to perpetuate the violence in their own habits.  Yet there is always the choice to love. At first it seemed harder, but now I can honestly say it is so much easier than the violent choice.

Instead of blowing my horn in traffic, I breathe deeply and enjoy the peace.  Instead of making a fuss in a restaurant I put the waitress at ease with a joke and we both can have a laugh.  Now, I really don’t want to eat a whole bag of chips anymore.  I love myself and that much salt just isn’t good for me.

According to Susan Corso’s book GOD’S DICTIONARY, the Anglo-Norman roots of the word peace mean “to fasten, in the sense of making something stable.”  I think of the word anchor.

Every day we’re retraining ourselves to choose love and that is what brings us the peace that anchors us in all things.  Instead of feeling wimpy, we are stronger than ever.  Every day, we walk with Gandhi, King, Jesus, Mother Teresa and all those who walked the path before us.  When we think we might fall down they hold us up.

Today I choose peace and peace chooses me.