The Aquarian Age is founded on, grounded in peace – the peace of the heart. Humanity is more connected each day in this time of global awareness as our expanding interconnectedness reveals the world to all of us through social media, through international news, through the reverberations of global trade, through global economic cooperation and alignments, through global nonprofits caring for global struggles, pain and hunger, through the global spread of diseases, through global pollution, through global climate conditions, through global responsibility and actions to prevent or end wars.

Nothing is fully individual now. There is no place in our world unaffected by the events in the world be they welcome or dangerous. Yet it is ever more our individual responsibility and opportunity to choose consciously our responses and actions because they truly matter. To live in a thriving world, it is now necessary to be peaceful, to live in peace. The eras when we could live in isolation unaffected by and unaware of the rest of the world are over.

This peace is the peace “which passeth all understanding” – the peace chosen, lived and modeled by Martin Luther King Junior, by Pope Francis, by the Dalai Lama, by Jane Goodall, and so many more. The first blessing from Pope Leo the 14th this week was a blessing of peace. This peace is the peace that emanates from a quiet, loving heart. It is an active, lived, chosen, valued peace.

There can be no division, no fear, no resistance to love in a peaceful heart. The heart cannot be divided against itself and be lovingly peaceful. A loving heart is empathetic, wise, detached from any agenda other than seeking a mutually beneficial solution to all problems be they personal or collective.

Our world is not peaceful yet, however, leaders everywhere call for peace, for an end to conflict, for an end to suffering, violence and death. A call for peace individually, nationally or globally is not always emanating from a peaceful heart, therefore, it will not produce a true peace though it may end a particular conflict. The true peace humanity seeks lies in each individual choosing to become peaceful emotionally, purposefully and actively.

This choice is not primarily a mental decision. It is an active, ongoing examination of where we are divided within ourselves, where we think or act harmfully to ourselves or others, where we support harm to those we don’t like, disagree with, see as less than us. The peaceful heart embraces all; all life, all people, all of our universe.

If a wise, peaceful vision of the power and purpose of humanity designed our societies, our laws, our institutions and our relationships, there would be far less pain, far more healing, far more freedom, far more love. This s not a weak, lazy or unconscious peace; it is active, it is disciplined, it is a living pathway to personal and collective growth, cooperation, collaboration and creativity. We can do better.

Let us choose the hard work of healing ourselves from division, suffering, demanding that others be like us. Only then will we want to and be capable of becoming an active, engaged force for healing our world.

Let us begin knowing and trusting the truth stated by Archbishop Desmond Tutu “Goodness is stronger than evil; Love is stronger than hate; Light is stronger than darkness; Victory is ours through him who loves us.” The “him” is surely God, our higher self, the loving source of all Creation, the divinity of all life that radiates through all religions, all great teachings and teachers.