Genuine Peace
In the course of the spring, we will reflect on the content of the second edition of Seasons of Life: a contemporary book of hours and pilgrims. Graddie Meijer already sent in a page. Graddie is one of the first pilgrims of the Walk of Wisdom! Image: Doro Krol
As the day of my personal walk of wisdom approached, I started to think about it more. Would I run on a theme and on which theme? I decided to walk on the theme of peace and chose five Bible verses: Psalm 85: 10-12, Isaiah 32:17, Zechariah 8: 16, James 3: 17, 18 and 1 Peter 3: 10 and 11. For every day I would run one and all five are about peace.
Nice subject, but also a subject about which so much has already been thought, said and written. Especially in my world, which consists largely of Mennonites and that faith community has become known as one of the historic peace churches!
What would the Walk of Wisdom bring me? Would my meditative thoughts on those five texts give me new points of view?
Every morning I spent the first 10-15 minutes mainly becoming aware of the environment in which I was walking: what do you hear, what do you see, what do you smell and what do you feel? Then I tried to discover how I felt: mood, fatigue, aches and pains, etc. Only when I had become aware of the surroundings and of my own feelings did the text of that day come to the next.
Now it’s not that I was thinking about that one text all day, but words and parts of the text in question kept coming into my mind. As soon as I took time for a break, I read through the text again so as not to lose sight of the whole thing. At the end of each day, I tried to write down briefly what I had noticed along the way or what my mind was stuck on. These were not only certainties, but also questions:
1. What do peace and justice have to do with each other?
2. Justice leads to peace, tranquility and security. Again and again we are called to do justice.
3. Keeping the peace by administering justice fairly and justly. In doing so, we are bringing peace closer.
4. The words justice, sincerity and peace always occur together. What does that mean?
5. If you want to be happy, you have to be honest and constantly pursue peace.
This is what I have noticed in all the texts: that peace, honesty and sincerity are always linked. Then it’s not about THE truth, but about my sincerity.
Eventually, it led me to the firm conviction that it is better to speak of sincerity than of truth. When it comes to truth, you can always question: what is truth, whose truth? When it comes to sincerity, it’s about me personally. I know very well when I am sincere or not and I can influence that. And if everyone is equally sincere, peace is certainly one step closer.
Really!
Graddie Meijer. http://graddiemeijer.com/
Photo: Graddie Meijer.
Image: Doro Krol, Wylerberg House and surroundings. On 4 March at 16.00h there will be an exhibition of Krol’s work during the opening of the season of the Dutch Cultural Landscape Association, an association that is committed to the preservation of the cultural landscape.
