Spring

"The birds are molting.
If only man could molt also - his mind once a year its errors,
his heart once a year its useless passions."

~James Allen

How can a society change, if people aren't willing to change?

"Why do we depend on leaders for change, while casting a blind eye towards our own personal responsibility towards it?
How can a society change, if people aren't willing to change? "

Change itself is a controversial topic.
I think that sometimes people change tremendously in an attempt to keep things the same.
To uphold tradition, to protect a culture and a native tongue, to "save" what is already changing...

People who do this might consider that to save what you want, you might destroy it by letting the end justify the means. If you are willing to fight for what you believe in, what you believe in can't be Peace, then. Or tolerance of diversity. Or grace and forgiveness.

So then, you say, is there anything of value that is worth fighting for? Well, yes, if what you value is gotten during the battle for it. Sometimes you only learn what is important to you as you are fighting for it. Or fighting for something else.

Fighting for Peace might be an oxymoron, if there wasn't a non-violent form of political action such as Thoreau, Ghandi and Martin Luther King advocated.

Battle can teach the value of peace. Death, destruction, loss and grief can teach strength, resilience and the need for reconciliation, cooperation, forgiveness, mercy, dignity, tolerance and grace. Or not.

The time may come when the direct personal experience of the horrors of war is not necessary to teach us these things. In the meantime, we might find that our battles divide us by those that have learned these human values, and those that have learned their opposite--bitterness, resentment, hatred, vengeance, inflexibility, intolerance, fear and paranoia.

On Change

"The purpose of life is undoubtedly to know oneself.
We cannot do it unless we learn to identify ourselves with all that lives.
The sum total of that life is God."

~ Mahatma Gandhi

"How can a society change, if people aren't willing to change?"

Pushing against something you don't want makes the focus be "the unwanted." And thus more unwanted is brought into this world. If you think you must do what you don't want to do, or wouldn't want to have done to you in order to accomplish something, then you are inadvertently creating more of what you don't want.

Focus on what is wanted, walk in that direction, have fun doing it and people will join you.

Praise the good, appreciate those who are doing it, be grateful for everything and everyone that has part of what is wanted. Gratitude expands what is appreciated.

Love is the only thing that creates something out of nothing. People shine when loved. We all grow towards the light, the shadows are just that, only shadows. Peace comes from knowing that shadows are simply the unloved places.

Be the sunflower whose face follows the sun across the sky.

Peace on Earth