December 7: Day 160

STONE TEN CONTINUED
 
Harmonize: I look for the harmony in all spiritual belief systems and seek to add my voice to the music of the Earth. I seek peace with myself and with all people.
 
Instruction: Add your voice.

One happy memory I cherish from my experience of religion is when I attended a church who always sang the same song at the close of each service, “Let there be Peace on Earth.” We stood, held hands, and as the last lines of the song were sung, we lifted our hands above our heads as we triumphantly announced, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” I didn’t attend that church long enough for that closing experience to grow old and boring the way many rituals do after they’ve been repeated for months and years, so it still remains in my memory as sweet, positive, and a wonderful goal to aspire to. The point of the song seems to be that if we want to have peace in our lives and in our world, we must contribute to the peace. We must be the peace we want to achieve. As Stone Ten would say, we must add our voice to the music of the earth. We must seek peace with ourselves and with all people.

Part of this process begins by making peace with bad religious experiences. We have written about looking for harmony in spiritual belief systems, but we must also make peace with those experiences that damaged us. I never recommend my former religion to anyone, but I have stopped trying to dissuade people from attending. I have come to realize that the religious organization, though I believe was mistaken in many ways, has helped thousands of people find and nourish a religious and spiritual faith. My parents, in fact, found meaning and purpose from that religious organization and made a better life for their three boys than what was given to them. I am grateful to that religious organization for the way they loved, nurtured, and cared for my parents as they raised us and brought us up with the knowledge of things beyond what we could see, touch, feel, or taste.

My parents and their church inspired us to believe in something beyond ourselves, and something so important it was worth dying for — and also worth living for. I respect that organization even though it no longer resonates with my beliefs, but I will not try to silence their voice. They are a part of the music of the Eternal, and their contribution is needed. Instead, I choose to add my voice, just as they have, in my own way. They have an audience that needs to hear the music the way they perform it, and I, perhaps, have a different audience. Each one of us has a voice that adds to the harmony of the music. The song will get louder, stronger, more powerful, yet at the same time, it will be the voice and song of peace as each one refuses to silence the other and decides instead to simply add our voice, join our hands, and proclaim, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”

Today’s Assignment is to take time to listen to the song, “Let there be peace on earth.” If you know the words by heart, sing along, and at the end, raise your hands in the air, and as the last strains of the song are sung, squeeze your hands as if you were squeezing the hands of someone next to you. Open your heart and determine to allow your voice, music, and song to blend with the symphony of the earth.