Everything I do is informed by my belief that life is beautiful, there is always goodness, you can have peace. Where else to start but in your own home? When I was much younger, I went to a New Year's Day Meditation for World Peace in a church in my hometown, Washington, DC. As I sat in silence and candlelight, I felt way too small and way too young to figure out, even for a moment, how to meditate for something as large as peace in the entire world. It came to me, as I sat there, that the best way to practice such an intention, was to be vigilant about peace in my own home.
I grew up in a poor and very unpeaceful environment where fear was my most frequent emotion. I remember a day, a particularly bad day, in my childhood when something inside of me awakened. I stood and declared that my children would never endure what my brothers and myself endured. They haven't.
Making choices for peace in your own home can be hard. Home is where we vent and let it out. But, that’s not fair. There are lots of ways to let it go without letting it go in the one place where everyone deserves to feel safe and know peace.