Forgiveness Contributes to World Peace
by Mary Hayes Grieco

In the 1960's a whole generation of people were called awake by the urgent ringing of bells signalling the dawning energies of liberation and justice rising within human society. All at once, it seemed, we were visited with multiple visions of a peaceful new era to come that is bloodily birthing in the present times. We imagined the end of war and hunger, and the creation of societies where all people are respected — women and men as equals, people of all colors as brothers and sisters. We were inspired with the desire to be free and to joyfully serve others, and to help the world from our real talents and with our whole hearts. We are still smack dab in the middle of an amazing revolution and transition from an old paradigm to a new. It’s fast moving and intense, and all of us are moving into a future we can barely imagine with the clumsy adaptability of a mutating species. It may be that our times, from 1950 to 2050, will be one of those one-liners in future history books — a hundred year transition time from one great name-able age to another. We are so in the middle of this stressful human transition that we don’t even know the name of the age that we are leaving and the age that is coming, but we are all in the job of creating it.

The Baby Boomers are no longer in the streets, but most of us are still quietly promoting "The Dream" that Martin Luther King kindled in our hearts in the sixties --- a gift straight from Spirit. The ways of Unconditional Love and Forgiveness give us a powerul daily practice to continue our peace work and to make The Dream a reality. You can renew this vision for yourself — right here, right now — in the place where it really matters: in your own daily life. If you are still sitting in mild paralysis and despair as you watch war and injustice on the evening news, please cut that out and get busy! End war and suffering in your own life, starting tomorrow morning. You have the power to do that. What if you dedicated yourself to forgiving every one, every thing, and lived a year-round commitment of peace on earth, good will to all men? What if you can be counted on to tell the truth, and to communicate with others in a consistently respectful way? What if you generously share your time and resources, and make sure children in your life receive what they need to grow and self actualize? What if you model peaceful conflict resolution in your marriage and in your work place and your neighborhood, because you base all your words and actions on a foundation of seeing the good in others and being able to think flexibly and creatively? What if you stand up to the tyrants in your life in a non-violent way, and you teach your children how to do that? And how about if you live and demonstrate the health and humility of a person who has appropriate personal boundaries and respects the boundaries of others? Living the spiritual principles of unconditional love and forgiveness will give you these abilities. You will put an end to war in your own life.

Will humanity as a whole end it’s love affair with war, and will groups and nations stop acting out their selfish aggression on each other like out of control teenagers? I think so. Some day. For the first time in human history people around the globe are saying that we must. We have so much power right now, you and I, to hasten that day along in the human story. It is said that it only takes a "committed minority" to tip the balance of a trend in the population. The spiritual energy of love and integrity coupled with the power of right actions ripples strongly outwards from each of us to inspire and catalyze further change in others who are touched by our energy and our stories. Ya say ya want a revolution? You better change your mind instead.... and don’t you know it’s gonna be - all right ...all right!

Forgiveness and reconciliation are not just ethereal, spiritual, other-worldly activities. They have to do with the real world. They are realpolitik, because in a very real sense, ... without forgiveness, there is no future.  Archbishop Desmond Tutu