One of the biggest barriers to Peace is isolation. How can we make Peace if we don’t know one another? or even acknowledge one another?

Locally, for me, that’s a fairly easy problem to address. I need to start saying hello to people on the street. I can own it. Become the mayor in the spiritual sense of it. (hmmm, maybe we should all be mayors of where we live, noticing what’s going on, doing what we can to address it.)

Maybe it’s more difficult in a large city, where people are forced to make their living on their wits and some folks take advantage of openness. But if there’s nothing they can take, because it’s being given away, maybe we won’t be so vulnerable. I knew a woman when i lived in NY, who always had a smile. She made Peace at the doors to shops, holding the doors for everyone, smiling at them, exchanging a kind word, even with the grumps of the universe.

But acknowledging someone’s humanity to their face predisposes them to less crankiness and who knows what…

maybe Peace. or the start of Peace. Maybe hellos are just the first light caress, blessing, of Love which leads to Peace. My little town is quaint with lovely architecture. It’s often recognized as one of the most beautiful towns… but what if it were beautiful because it was friendly, because people said hello and talked about what mattered, and what didn’t?