I\u2019m sitting next to a lake, watching a sunrise and waiting for peak color. I\u2019m inside a warm truck, and though the wind is quite frigid, I\u2019m warm when I\u2019m inside. I spent the night in a hotel, and I have a job to go to this morning. I was able to shower this morning, in water that was safe to drink, and wouldn\u2019t make me sick if I swallowed some on accident. I\u2019ll get breakfast a bit later, and I might even have some sort of warm drink to chase away the chill.<\/p>\n
I seemingly have everything I need around me to live a very peaceful life.<\/p>\n
So even though yesterday was a mess, starting at 2 a.m. with a collision with 2 deer, and ending with perhaps one of the worst headaches I remember in my life, I can wake up this morning and face the day knowing that I am truly in a good place.<\/p>\n
I woke up this morning and didn\u2019t discover that the home next door had been destroyed by bombs in the night. I woke up this morning and didn\u2019t discover that Boko Haram came in the night and abducted all of the school girls from my village. I woke up this morning and the Burmese army was not at my door, forcing me to leave. I woke up this morning, and will have food to eat, clothes to wear, and water to drink. Everything in my immediate view is just fine.<\/p>\n
In all my travels, I have met many people who can\u2019t say those things, who can\u2019t say that everything is just fine around them. I have met people who make cookies out of dirt to sell in the market. (If you don\u2019t believe me I\u2019ll show you the video sometime.) I have met people who lay dying in their parents home of a cancer that couldn\u2019t be treated by the local health system. I have met people who have lost everything they owned, and people they have loved in an earthquake. Everything in my view is not just fine.<\/p>\n
So how do we wrestle with this peace around us, knowing there is not peace for others in the world? I have been writing about peace each December for 4 years, and at the end of this year, I will have written 100 different posts about peace, and I still am not sure. I still don\u2019t know the answer.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean I will stop looking.<\/p>\n