Sometimes I get overwhelmed by what I can’t do in this phase of life – I can’t drive without the demand for kid music; I can’t read more than a paragraph in a book without interruption; I can’t attend protests or marches. Sometimes I wonder what I can do. How can I make a difference in the midst of my own everyday story?
Osheta Moore answers that question with grace and enthusiasm. In Shalom Sistas: Living Wholeheartedly in a Brokenhearted World she reminds me what everyday peacemaking looks like. It looks like getting to know my neighbors; it looks like loving and empowering my kids; it looks like giving myself grace when I mess up.
She reminds me that we all have a story – that our experiences and opinions aren’t formed in a vacuum. How did we get here? What happened to help shape our own narrative? I appreciate that Osheta doesn’t have big solutions to big problems. She has small, doable solutions to everyday problems. Her solutions include things like listening, getting to know our neighbors, dancing in the kitchen and choosing subversive joy in the midst of pain.
Throughout Shalom Sistas, Osheta reminds me that I can be the one to change the narrative. I don’t have to believe what I see or what I’m told. I can choose to see good, to love through the seemingly unlovable situations, and to choose to bring peace rather than division.
But being a peacemaker isn’t passive. Like getting your hands dirty in the garden in order to grow flowers and vegetables, peacemaking requires getting messy in order to create something beautiful.
How do you find peace in your everyday? What are ways you choose to tell better stories?
This post is Day 7 of the Write 31 Days Challenge. I’m spending the month of October writing about the Backyard Justice. You can find the entire series over at my Backyard Justice page.
Annie Rim 
So much THIS: “But being a peacemaker isn’t passive. Like getting your hands dirty in the garden in order to grow flowers and vegetables, peacemaking requires getting messy in order to create something beautiful.”
I’m remembering that the good things in life usually require a certain amount of dirt and sweat…
This series has you digging deeper, Annie and it’s to our benefit.
Thanks, Debby!
Great question and an empowering reminder that we can own our thoughts and our voice. So helpful to recognize our choices. I find it easier to see my choices when I get space, my office or home is clean. More challenging when I allow the noise of the world to create clutter.
Definitely! When I have space – physical and mental – it’s so much easier to step back and assess carefully. (Easier said than done!)
Oh, you and your questions. How do I find peace. A rare commodity. Ultimately it is a choice. I try to look for the positive. Not to let the hard stuff get me down. Fretting will not make it better. I cannot control the choices of others, I can control mine own. My youngest may make a mess and come in unrecognizable covered in mud, tack it across the house. I remind myself she is a child, exploring, smiling, happy. So, I chose to laugh with her as, together we clean the tracks she left in her wake, while she tells me of her adventures that caused it. My wife tells me it is from my mother. She always would see good. My older brother was an source of worry, yet she will always say, he has such a good heart and smile. Grace – I guess my recipe is Grace.
Yes! Remembering the root of why our kids make choices…. and that they’re kids!! I always have to stop and think about that in the midst of a mess or tantrum or whatever.