The lucky winners from our Facebook contest are:
Jennifer Halber
Sera Chang
Cynthia Anderson
Traci Fish
Val Engstrom
Rolanda Engstrom
Richard Scheck
Francis-Gene Acosta
The winners were selected at random. Here are their entires…
From Jennifer Halber:
Loving others regardless of our own ingrained prejudices in order to pursue a means of equality is what living peace means to me. For those who can sacrifice a piece of themselves to form a bond and connection with others in this world is the most beautiful picture we can paint for the generations to come. By seeing how we have lived with peace and greatfulness of life towards others we can be made whole.
From Sera Chang:
Living in peace means to me an active pursuit of happiness for not oneself but for another. Is there peace when one is at a comfortable, happy state but those around are in contrast struggling and striving to survive? Many think they have acquired peace by believing in the idea of peace but when has believing in itself achieve anything?
Living peace is an act that separates one from the idea that the world revolves around oneself. It’s time to recognize others and their needs. We need to serve others, especially those who the world have turned away from and through that a chain reaction can flow into an invincible wave for living peace.
From Cynthia Anderson:
I’d like to think that this journey we are all on leads us to a better world where we all get along and live our lives in peace and harmony – where we have acceptance, love and gratitude for one another … I think The Center for Living Peace reflects this and strives to provide the avenue to achieve this goal.
From Traci Fish:
Living Peace can mean many things to many people. One of my 8 year old students once told me that “peace” meant “stopping world hunger.” If good comes out of this, if good happens…there is no bad definition. To me, Living peace means being grounded. It is a conscious DECISION we make every day. It is genuinely loving and accepting every thing and everyone around us. Finding peace in all people, living things, and in all of life and using it to do good, to better ourselves and the world. Living Peace is harmony and civility. It is not trying to be above all the struggles in life, Living Peace is having struggles and obstacles in life but living in calm, constantly learning, and loving every moment of it; taking in everything around you and finding the beauty and peace within. In my life, Living Peace is valuing life as a whole; being aware of the past, living in the moment, and preparing for the future.
From Val Engstrom:
Great changes have been brought by living peace. Wars have been avoided or arrested. Despots have been brought down. People have been freed and shackles removed.
But living peace isn’t just taking a stance against war. It isn’t just being non-violent or resisting oppression, exploitation or servitude.
All of the above has been achieved by living peace. There have been great achievements and changes brought about in the world by living peace. But to actually describe it you have to bring it down to a more personal focus.
To understand living peace you have to focus down to a more intimate level. You have to change your focus from the wide-angle world’s view, and set your focus down to macro focus where you can see all the details and nuances of your own life. You need that focus in order to not only understand it, but to take it and make it your own.
On macro focus you can see that living peace on a personal level is just living peacefully. Peace has at its root an act of confirming an agreement or fastening to a way of life that excludes hate and disorder. To live peace you banish hate, bitterness and anger, while you champion empathy and tranquility. You try to end argument and hostilities. You focus that camera lens down to macro in order to examine the minutia or your life. At that tight focus you can see how much easier it is to hate than to love. But as you get the pictures of your life together, you can see how much fuller your life is without all the disorder that hate and anger brings into your life. Focus on empathy and humanity. Sign a peace agreement with yourself to live peacefully.
This is living peace where it starts—at home.
From Rolanda Engstrom:
To me living peace is everywhere you look. We are not the only living species on the planet. Flowers, birds, elephants, dogs, cats, trees, etc. are living peace. Humans seem to be the only ones who can hold a grudge, act out in a jealous rage and covet what our friend or neighbor has. Humans also can manufacture instruments of destruction; guns, ammunition and bombs, which are the antithesis of living peace. Have you ever seen a bird toting an AK 47? Living peace means to be at peace with the earth and to make sure that the peacefulness remains for the next living creature that happens by.
Sadly, most people do not know the meaning of living peace. Making war and the by products of it seem to be easier. When greed, dishonesty, war and a disregard for other living things and the earth’s natural resources continue, we slip further and further away from living peace.
Now more that ever, living peace should be at the top of everyone’s list. It is time for all of us to take a more active role in this quest for living peace. Starting with the inner self, let’s take the first step on the road to living peace. Peace and kindness can then spread like wild fire. All we need to start is to say, “I am living peace.” Let’s practice this today, tomorrow, and forever.
From Rickard Scheck:
What Living Peace Means To Me
by Richard Scheck
Living Peace requires a level of self-mastery in which one models
compassion, selflessness and the acceptance of others.
Living Peace entails the ability to live in the present with an attitude of unconditional love toward all the other creatures who share this planet with us.
Living Peace is a concept that challenges us to be self-aware and
maintain our nobility in the face of hardship, abuse and tragedy.
Living Peace is the notion implicit in all spiritual disciplines
that calls on mere mortals to rise above their baser nature and
strive toward the perfection achieved by history’s great religious
teachers.
Living Peace is the call from above to listen to that still, small
voice within that connects us to our bliss and reminds us—even in
the darkest hours—that heaven awaits those who can transcend anger
and remain firm in their uniqueness.
And yes Living Peace is the accomplishment of having a life filled with joy while behaving in a manner that inspires others and leaves us feeling complete with the knowledge that there is truth in the world.
To Live in Peace is to be tranquil despite disappointment, to be fearless
in the face of perfidity, to keep an open mind and loving heart in a
world seemingly dominated by deception, ignorance, greed and the pettiness
of people with small minds.
To Live in Peace is to have the innocence and wonder of a child first
seeing a bird in flight, watching snow fall on a naked mountain top, listening to the ponding ocean waves or experiencing the emergence of
the night’s starry array as the sun flees from the sky.
To Live in Peace requires the relentless pursuit of truth and the ability
to resist the unending temptations presented to us daily.
And finally, Lving Peace is knowing to a metaphysical certainty that the
force that constitutes our bodies is the same energy that infuses the
entire Cosmos and allows us to rest comfortably within the Soul of God.
From Francis-Gene Acosta:
Compassion, understanding, respect, tolerance, acceptance…all without question necessary virtues that contribute to “living peace.” But in themselves and collectively they are insufficient (not to mention a little cliché) in describing what “living peace” should truly mean. I think living peace can best be understood relative to its greatest foe—indifference. I say greatest without hesitation because indifference often escapes people’s minds as an issue that hinders humanity’s ability to reach its potential for moral excellence. This is especially true of American culture. We all must understand that we can only fully combat indifference through action. To give an example in the wake of World AIDS Day, to me “living peace” might mean volunteering and sacrificing one’s time to teach and care for HIV/AIDS orphans abroad. It can also mean actively challenging leaders to aim for universal treatment and care for HIV/AIDS patients and combating the discrimination and ignorance that places marginalized groups at higher risk. Too often individuals are satisfied with donating money or reading up on a cause or issue as their means of contributing to “living peace.” Too many individuals surf through television channels and the internet avoiding noteworthy news sources that report on the state of the world because they deem them to be “just too depressing.” Individuals with this mindset are as troubled as the victims they see in the news—those infected with disease, those oppressed by their leaders, those suppressed by society—because like them they lack the ability to inspire change. In fact I would even claim that they are more troubled than these victims because they don’t really “lack the ability” they just choose not to exercise the freedom to actively fight back against disease and oppression that they have over those who are truly suffering. To achieve “living peace” we must implore those around us to allow the causes for this inaction—be it fear, laziness, selfishness, etc.—to fuel the vehicle that will lead us down the path for not only “living peace” on a day-to-day basis, but more importantly, “lasting peace” that will resonate in generations to come.
Thank you to everyone who entered! Your definitions of living peace were inspiring! If you didn’t get tickets to see Charlize Theron speak about her work with the Africa Outreach Project, fear not. We will be streaming the event live from our website.
Good Happens.
Peace Grl Out.
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