P for Peace

P words have been flipping and flopping around in my head like fish out of water, struggling to find their natural element, to slip smoothly through my fingers and onto this paper.  But I’ve been holding them tightly…until this moment when peace has won the page.

I started out with “peace” awhile back, but kept wandering down other paths – pizza, play, poo-poo, and puzzles being a few “Ps” that made me smile. I kept planning to put pen to paper, promising to prioritize this particular project, but the purpose for the prose remained perplexing and it was possible to procrastinate day after day. 

Then I hit the fork in the road that brought my P into perspective. In the midst of all the unrest in the US, I had been self-righteously observing the goings-on at a safe distance, making it easy for me to judge all of those in power and shake my head.  Why can’t they just get along?  Why can’t they focus on the work and quit playing politics?

The details of my fork are not relevant.  Suffice it to say that it was my own political battle and I was in the right.  I knew I was right.  I had the facts and data.  I felt the pull of power, to put my persecutors in their proper place, to pull out all the stops and pound them over the head with the obvious.  My attack was prepared, my speech played over and over in my head. 

Come on, you’ve been at that fork, haven’t you?  One way led to victory for me and my ego.  In the opposite direction was letting go of all that and pursuing peace.  But, let me say it again, I WAS RIGHT.  The decision was obvious.

I couldn’t sleep that night.  I tossed and turned, I rationalized and justified, I argued my case in a manner worthy of Perry Mason.  Not so obvious after all.

At the end of the day, I knew I had to choose peace over being right.  It was not an easy thing to do.  It required self-denial and discipline and letting go of being right, the latter being an especially difficult thing for me to do.  The moment I made that decision, the hard work began.  But the peace was worth the price. 

Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Psalm 34:12-14

My pursuit continues.