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To My Dearest Peace…

To My Dearest Peace…

Last updated on: September 21, 2017 at 11:02 am by Kaitlin B. Curtice

To My Dearest Peace… 2017-09-21T11:02:35-04:00 Kaitlin B. Curtice

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peace.

Peace, Dearest,

I searched for you today. I was in Aleppo, and I held a dying child as she searched my eyes for your presence and I searched hers for the same.

Dearest Peace,

I sought you out in the middle of the protest, each one a fight for people to become more human to each other, each one a battle in your very name.

I listened for your voice when the news shouted vulgar lies at the world, one side against another side for the loudest noise. But I wasn’t sure what your voice sounded like anymore, so I was afraid.

Peace,

I looked for you in the busy, over-crowded streets, among the consumers who bought what they didn’t want for the deal of the century.

I looked for you and you weren’t there.

A long time ago, as the story goes, some old and weary shepherds followed a star and found you, birthed in a dirty and dark place, nothing out of the ordinary for the very foundations of the world to shake.

So maybe we find you in those same, unexpected places.

A long time ago, the five tribes buried their weapons under a great tree and began a New Way for the world , following in the steps of the Peacemaker who was born of a virgin.

So maybe we can find you in those same, sacred spaces.

You were there in Aleppo. You held that light in her eyes steady as our world let go of her and you carried her on.

You held the center of the protests steady, kept the heartbeat of prayer while violence made vile threats across dividing lines.

It is you, the voice of every still thing when the news is loudest, you, in the chirping of the birds and the stretching limbs of the tree, in the way the wind rustles the cold across our skin and down to our bones.

You are the thing that draws us back to center and tells us the story once again, the one that unmasks our consumer sickness.

You, Dear One, have always been there, and I was unaware.

You, Dearest Peace, have held the world steadily in orbit from the beginning and even before that, it seems, your heart fully aware of what you’d have to take on one day in this world we think we own.

Peace, my friend.

You hold us, still.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind;
bid thou our sad divisions cease,
and be thyself our King of Peace.

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