Walk for Peace

The Walk for Peace

The images have been beautiful, the talks enlightening, and the impact astounding.

Countless people have written beautiful, thoughtful, soul searching, eloquent, and emotional pieces about the Walk for Peace.

I have been thinking about writing something, but have been reluctant to share any ideas or thoughts I have on something so profound. I have decided that all I can hope to do is relate what the last month or so of following these monks and their support teams across two thousand three hundred miles as they walked through storms and strife and shared their message with literally millions of followers, has given me.

I’m not sure when the images began showing up on my Facebook feed, among the angry posts about what is happening to our country. Like many I was following the brave people of Minnesota as they worked to protect their friends and neighbors from the tyranny being imposed on their streets.

Among the images of the masses of Minneapolis singing in the streets and actively protecting fellow human beings, something else started showing up in my Facebook feed. A group of saffron clad figures walking along rural roads and being escorted by local law enforcement were traveling sometimes twenty miles a day…on their feet. People lined the roads passing fresh flowers to the monks who carried them for a while and then passed them on to people lining the road. Occasionally the line of monks would halt as they came before a child or someone in a wheel chair, and one of the monks would tie a small string peace bracelet on an outstretched arm.

I began to go to Facebook instead of the regular news I read daily. To follow the monks journey. To watch as they traveled through atrocious weather, always being met along the roads with thousands of freezing flower bearing people. It was mesmerizing and somehow fulfilling watching all these people waiting for hours for a glimpse of these men who were not trying to sell them anything, not trying to get them to renounce their religion in favor of another; just bringing a message of peace.

Somewhere along the way I saw that as they stopped for the night, sometimes at a church, sometimes at a firehall or a university who all had gladly given their space as shelter to these remarkable men and their volunteers; the monk leading them gave simple, humble, humor filled talks. I began to listen. The message is simple. Until we have peace within ourselves we cannot change the world to make it a better place.

He talked of giving up our addiction to our phones and other devices that take us out of living in the time and space of the moment. He talked of calming ourselves by being mindful of such a simple thing as our breath going in and out. All the talks were humble, respectful, and the advice so simple, but hard to achieve in our frantically paced angry world.

It made sense to me so I tried to focus more on things that calm me, like the trees or the birds and less on the anger and frustration of watching world events as people and the environment are torn apart. I am becoming more mindful of staying in the moment and not trying to do or think about twenty things at once. Of working on my own peace.

So far I’m not very good at it, but at least now I am more aware. Mostly I am inspired, not just by the twenty monks that did such an incredible thing; but by the throngs of people who are so hungry for a more peaceful world that they drove for hours, stood in howling winds and biting cold for many more hours to see these incredible individuals walk past and hope that the close proximity would bring them peace.

I am heartened by the hundreds if not thousands of peaceful law enforcement men and women who respectfully shepherded the monks through rural roads and busy highways, from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, DC.

I am inspired by the churches, schools, community organizations who stepped up to give the people of the Walk for Peace food and shelter. For the countless volunteers who gave their hearts and minds, and time so that the Walk for Peace could progress peacefully and with physical and emotional support.

For once in my life I am thankful for the algorithms of Facebook who brought me the daily images and writings of the countless numbers of people following this life changing event. The tragedy, of course, is that so many people missed out because their algorithms are focused on the negative, divisive, anger inducing stories. Most of the mainstream media was slow to cover the story, if they did at all. Except for a few stories reported by what passes for news, the mindboggling story of the impact made by twenty men and their faithful volunteers on millions of people worldwide has largely been ignored.

I will be forever grateful for the chance encounter I had with this remarkable story. My life is better for it. I hope that some small part of it has rubbed off on me, making a permanent stain on my psyche for the better. No, I am not naive, simplistic, deluded, or demented in spite of my advancing age. I just know a good thing when I see it.