A Powerful Message of Peace

As I watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, I was touched by its beauty and by discovering more about this small country that has had such a rich history.  There was also woven all throughout the ceremony a message of peace.  I was deeply moved that in one of the hottest spots in our world, a powerful message of peace was being shared and beamed all around the world.

When they began to sing Imagine by John Lennon, my heart soared.  Here were 35,000 people, many of them holding lights, coming together to sing this powerful song in a time when it looks like everything is falling apart.  And there were millions of people all over the world watching and receiving this message.

This cannot help but make a difference.  Your mind may scoff at this.  It may be feeling skepticism; or it may be too caught in fear or anger to open to this vision.  So, I ask you to see the earth from space in your mind’s eye.  Focus in on the stadium where thousands of people are holding lights and their hearts are being lit up by singing this song.  Now pan out to the whole world and see that this lit up the hearts of tens of thousands of people around the world.  See more lights twinkling all over our planet in this time of darkness.

So, I invite you, in your daily life, rather than focusing on all the darkness that is unfolding on our planet, to instead hold the vision of more and more human hearts waking up; of more and more hearts seeing that no matter what our religion, our politics, our gender or our sexual orientation, that there is so much more that we have in common.

You may say, as John says, that I am just a dreamer, but I agree when he says, “I am not the only one.”

He then goes on to say, “I hope someday you’ll join us.  And the world will be as one.”  Will you join me in holding that the vision of peace for our world is stronger than all the divisiveness, terror, reactions and judgments?

I leave you with the words to “Imagine:”

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today.

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace.

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world.

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one.