Reach peace

Peace cannot be reached

A parable from the Shalom Center in Chile

“There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.” Ghandi

A young learner asked her teacher how to arrive at the destiny that all humans dream of reaching: to live in peace.  The teacher answered, “you must walk.”

The first path the learner chose was a main road with much traffic, noise and pollution.  People ran crazily hither and thither, some blabbing on cellphones, others staring straight ahead, and none paying attention to anyone else.  In the midst of the tumult, between the honking and the bodies in constant movement, two small girls where jumping and twirling gaily around their young mother.  They greeted each passerby and smiled to those who responded as well as to those who didn’t.  When they reached the young learner, they shouted “hello!” with giggle of pure happiness and went on to play tag around a light post.  The road continued as busy as before with its noisy congestion and smoky haze.

The second path taken by the young learner was an alley between high walls.  No one else walked the narrow street.  People in this part of town kept their fears at bay inside their fortified homes. A solitary cat meowed and jumped from a rooftop to the tapered crest of a wall.  The young learner and the cat walked on together:  the girl along the alley whispering her thoughts out loud and the cat bounding from ridge to ridge with perfect balance and occasional purrs. They enjoyed each other’s company until the end of the narrow way.  The cat said good-bye with one last meow. 

The third path lead the learner into green fields decorated here and there with flowers and stands of bushy trees.  She was alone, but she didn’t feel lonely.  The sun warmed her, the wind unsettled her hair and the birds sang and swooped.  She wandered along, stopping to breathe deep, look and listen.

When she finally returned from her walking, her teacher asked, “Which is the path that leads to the destiny called peace?” And the young learner, now the wiser for her walking, answered, “one cannot get to peace; one can only choose to carry peace on which ever path one walks.”

Elena Huegel

June 2009