War is Easy…

It’s actually peace that is hard.

Monk Thich Quang Duc burns in his fight for change.

Photo taken by journalist Malcom Browne

War is easy.

It’s nothing more than an over-indulgence in the gluttony of your emotions.

A path that requires little-to-no resistance and strokes your insatiable need to feast.

Letting your thoughts, feelings and desires design your movements and memories.

And while war can be big, it can also be small, rippling in the milieu of your life.

Maybe you tend to argue, fight, or judge, struggling with finite power and control.

Maybe you allow for hatred, fury and violence, even if it’s just rejection or gossip.

Or maybe it’s in the silences, the minor passive aggressions, the belittling, oppressing and demoralising.

Maybe it’s in the guilt-tripping.

Or the negligent disrespect.

Or the quiet shame and painful punctures of elongated silent treatments.

Many of us do these things, if not all to some degree.

Often to ourselves…but mostly to others. And most likely, to both if we aren’t vigilant.

Because it’s actually peace that is profoundly hard.

A rebellion that only a warrior can bear.

The patience, empathy, compassion and honesty.

The need for integrity, fortitude and humility.

Being able to listen, learn, wait and wonder.

Or to open, develop and change.

And perhaps the hardest provocation of all, empowering other people - admiring their humanity instead of trying to destroy it.

If these things were easy, we’d have much more peace in the world. It wouldn’t be a fight for good and evil.

But it’s not creating peace that’s the easy part of humanity, it’s actually the defining challenge.

Because it’s war that is the temptation.

War that is the slippery slope.

The wedge that will divide and isolate you.

The potential for war is present in every moment. In every decision you make.

And peace requires purpose. Peace requires value. And peace requires resilience and resolve.

For the fight to heaven was never meant to be easy…but it's the battle we were designed to fight.

It is the challenge you are faced with and the struggle you must overcome.

For practicing peace is not for the faint-hearted.

Only war is for the weak.