Prayer for Peace

Some of us pray to God.

Some to Buddha or off toward Mecca.

There are those who worship nature or the spirits of the world, and there are those who don't pray at all.

But tonight I pray for something that I think we all can stand together in if we drop the Religion, Theology, Mysticism and Science that we serve.

Peace.

As I sit up way too late on Tuesday, just a couple of weeks away from Christmas, I find that there is only one thing that I truly want this year.  More of the peace that I've sought and found in spurts over the last three years.  Not a peace that comes from rallies with signs or an end to War, but the simple ideal that there is a new hope, a fresh morning and a chance to move away from the darkness that looms over our heads.

If one at a time we all said our own prayer for peace - in whatever fashion we choose - and looked inward toward the human pulse that does truly unite us, couldn't we make such a radical change on this planet. 

The thought is simple.  Implementation is where the work happens.  But it's only up to the individual to strive for more balance within.  There doesn't have to be some 'meeting', an alter call, a terrorist attack, or even a radical thought.  Just take a breath.  Stop in the daily commotion. 

And "give peace a chance".

Two, one two three four

Everybody's talking about

Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism

Ragism, Tagism, this-ism, that-ism

Ism ism ism

All we are saying is give peace a chance

All we are saying is give peace a chance

Everybody's talkin' 'bout ministers, sinisters

Banisters and canisters, bishops and fishops

Rabbis and pop eyes, bye bye, bye byes

All we are saying, is give peace a chance

All we are saying, is give peace a chance

Let me tell you now

Everybody's talking about, revolution

Evolution, masturbation, flagellation

Regulation, integrations, meditations

United Nations, congratulations

All we are saying is give peace a chance

All we are saying is give peace a chance

Everybody's talking about, John and Yoko

Timmy Leary, Rosemary, Tommy smothers

Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper, Derek Taylor

Norman Mailer, Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna, Hare Hare Krishna

All we are saying is give peace a chance

All we are saying is give peace a chance

All we are saying is give peace a chance

~ John Lennon

Official Video for John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance"

Another Man's Son

Walked many roads.

Climbed a few mountains...

A man walks down the street.  Out of the rubble of war, disaster, disease.  It's the story told in the book "The Road".  An apocalyptic tale of one man's struggle to survive and watch after the son who travels along side.

But this is real life.

I see Another Man and know his life.  I know the struggles he's personally faced and I have seen the hopelessness that envelopes all that is around him.  No matter what anyone may think, I may be the closest to him.  His eyes are my eyes.  His voice, my own.

And now I find myself wondering how I'll pass along his memory.  What do I say?  share?  As I prepare for the son who is fast approaching, how do I remedy my own past mistakes and time missed?

It's almost as if I'm being given the chance to raise the son He never had.  Maybe this is another of those moments where instead of analyzing, I should just do what I do pretty well - find the way to move on and embrace the path that I've been placed on.

Realize the blessings that I've been given.


The boy who is coming is my blood - my flesh - my seed.

But he's also the image of someone who won't be forgotten.  Through my eyes I hope to share a little about Another Man...

...to my son.

The Unexpected

Though we tend to mark history with time, a specific point in our day or week that helps us define life, I find that more often my own history is defined by moments.  Those places, people or events that I may or may not be able to recall the specific date or second, but I can tell you what I was wearing, what was going on around me and how the moment made me feel.

Graduating (finally) college - I have to think for a moment to remember the year (LOL), but I can tell you who sat beside me, how the fresh-cut grass smelled on the stadium lawn.

When the kids were born, especially my daughter.  How the pace of the day was so quick compared to my son's birth.  How I was sick and had to cross Peachtree Street to get medicine for myself at the drugstore.  The way my son was playing and grinning up at me from the floor of the room we were in.  How it felt to cradle Cambrey in my arms as she pronounced herself to the world.

The days I was alone - lost to the world it seems.  What terrible moments those were.  But never again.

So there are moments for all of us. Some are planned, but then there are those unexpected ones that stick with us and continue to fill us with the knowledge that everything in this life isn't scripted or planned to the half hour.

The first words of a babe.

The first time I looked out over the summit of blood mountain.  Heaving from the workout and perspiring, but at a loss of breath more from the view.

A smile shared unexpectedly.

Life being formed inside a mother's womb - kicking for it's time to share in the light.

The unexpected comes and we just have to embrace it - hold it and know that life is richer from those moments shared...