I Challenge You to Peace

 

 As a junior high teacher (then an administrator at that same school, and later at the new middle school) I was asked to address the student body and our teachers. 

Please click on the link below to my YouTube video of a return visit to that speech and then come back and finish reading this post.

YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYTstuj6ICw&list=UUHy9qpzFLC819m7VJnuXrRQ


That was then.  

What would I change in that address if I were to speak to students now? 

Well, first of all keep in mind that I worked at a public school. So I would make no mention of spiritual beliefs. Morality, yes.  Character, yes.  Use the words Spirit, God, Source, Holy Spirit, Master?  I couldn't.  And I wouldn't out of respect for, and belief in the Separation of Church and State. 

So, taking into account my parameters, I think I came close then to what I have come to remember now. If I were given the honor to speak to a group outside of public school, I would likely replace certain words and phrases. In place of "Look into the eyes of the child," I would say, With your spiritual eye look into the heart or soul of that person and see the Christ within them.  

When I said, "We tend to have one of four reactions to someone who is different than ourselves,"  I omitted something from my listing that I would include today: We judge them. And that judgment is really a projection of our fear onto that other person.
We think it's safer that way because then we don't have to own it and try to heal from it.

I said in that address, "We need to look beyond the differences into the alikeness." Today I would say, We need to recognize that we are all one.  One with our Source and one with each other.

When I said, "I believe that human beings crave survival, equality, balance..."  today I would change that to, I believe that all of us crave LOVE. We are either offering love or putting out a call for love.

Then, I said, "I see each of us as a child hidden within our various bodies."  Today, I remember that each of us is one with the Spirit of God merely masked by the illusion of the default-vision from our wrong-mind. Right-minded vision sees only truth, oneness, love and joy.

I did score a "BINGO!"  I hit it on the head with identifying fear as the motivator for committing unloving acts. 

So, after having watched my video and read the changes that I would make. I invite you to let me know by your comments what you would change.  See if you think that the presentation that I made in the late 1990s is something that would lead junior high students and teachers to at least think about moving from fear to love.

 

Photos by Barb Adams (c)