At Home in My Own Skin, Where Peace Begins

Some of my friends and family live vicariously through my travels, many locations and many experiences. They wonder how it is that I have managed to live my life “without a home.” I have only briefly “owned” a home in all of my life, yet I’ve never been without a home, for indeed, I am deeply “at home” in my own skin; therefore, at home anywhere I am and everywhere I go.

In my earlier years, I met with much heartache as a result of my inexperience and immaturity. Not knowing how to meet with adversity, I became very sad and very bitter over losses. At one point in my life, I mentally formed a firing squad aimed at the long line of all those who I felt had betrayed me, wounded me, or judged me unfairly. My phasers were set on disintegrate as they fired upon each offending foe. I had hoped this mental exercise would exorcise me of the painful sorrow gnawing at my soul, day and night; but of course, I was wrong.

Imagine, only weeks later, having to mentally resurrect each one in order to forgive them! Forgiveness was much more freeing than the death sentence I had perpetrated such a short time before. Arriving at this forgiveness had come only after many, many years of agony and struggle.

Some years afterward, a friend approached me with a message from the Hopi nation, requesting that I begin to ask Creator for peace. The request left me unsettled, but out of my respect for the Hopi and all Indian nations, I agreed. Each morning for about a year afterwards, I began my mornings “at the purple dawn,” as instructed, seeking peace. As I began to ask for peace, I realized I did not even know what I was asking for; hence, the nature of my mornings changed from solicitation to inquiry. “What is Peace,” I asked. “Is humanity capable of Peace?” “Are we ready?” “How do we establish Peace?” These questions and many others, I asked daily of an invisible entity, who was ready and willing to answer my every query. The answers I received astounded me. In those rich, colorful mornings, Peace taught me the acceptance and reconciliation work of Peace must begin individually, forgiving oneself and loving oneself. Once a person reconciles themselves to God and self, they can begin to heal their relationships, one by one. Each person I reconcile and establish peace with can then make their own peace within themselves and amongst their relations. It is in this way Peace begins and spreads throughout humanity. Making Peace seemed a daunting task, and I expressed this. Peace responded, “When one recognizes there is no “other,” that we all come from and return to the same Source, it becomes much easier to understand what one does to themselves or to another, they do to themselves and to all.”

Self-love and self-forgiveness caused hot tears and warm joy to flow like sweet honey. As I was able to love and forgive myself, I began to experience Peace and being very comfortable and at home with myself. Forgiving others, recognizing myself in them, became easier and easier. Choosing Peace became as natural as breathing.

Each moment brings heightened gratitude for Peace, who met with me those purple hued mornings to answer my questions and patiently teach me there is no other; home is everywhere for it is within; and finally, it is within that Peace begins.