P52 Week 39 -- Peace

I think of peace when I am in my home. I felt a sense of peace when I found this townhouse, even though it is located in a less than desirable neighborhood.

“I wouldn’t buy here, Liz,” my ex told me when he heard I was interested in this area. “There’s a high crime rate and there are gangs, you know.” I wasn’t fazed by the reports of home burglaries, car break-ins, assaults, shootings and homicides.  

It may sound strange, but I felt called to move here. Do you ever have a sense that just clunks into place for you? Well, that’s how I felt as I first sat in my car outside this condo. It was truly a sense of “peace which passeth all understanding.”

Many in my development live in refugee and subsidized housing, Indeed, my zip code has the distinction of being the most culturally diverse in the country. There is community pride. In the past month banners have been erected along the main street proclaiming “welcome” in over twenty languages – some, I am loath to admit, I have never heard of.

Living here, I have often felt that I am adding to the sense of the collective peace in my neighborhood as I sit on my bed and gaze out the window. When I meditate, write, and reflect, I think I am adding to the zeitgeist, to the spirit of the area. I hope I am helping to balance the unrest, and the violence.

I go on walks on the Chief Sealth trail that abuts my building and share warm greetings with my Asian, Hispanic and African neighbors. I admire the pea patches filled with corn stalks, sunflowers, onions, and many varieties of beans and peppers. I walk with my granddaughter to the library a block from my house and play in the nearby park. She is oblivious to the fact that she is the only blond, blue-eyed child in the group. She climbs and vies for the swings without any sense of self-consciousness.

Peace. I am at peace in this neighborhood. I am part of the peace movement in this neighborhood and it’s up to me to keep peace in my heart and soul and emanate that quality to my surroundings.