Walk for peace

I made sure and got up early. A few days I went to sleep late and got up late and I did not want this to become a habit. It is six in the morning. I drink a large glass of water. I have a bowel movement. I change my clothes and head to the mini mart like I do every morning. A red band maxi taxi passes me by. The big one that holds twenty four passengers. Maybe it has been hired for an excursion to the river. Maybe.

I buy milk, the big five liter water, toilet paper, Crix, multigrain bread, some snacks and two diet cokes. The doubles shop is on my way home and I stop for two doubles, one for me and one for my mom. The birds are chirping and the roads are mostly empty. All this sounds simple and most importantly peaceful. Something I do not take for granted. Every night I say my prayers and every morning I thank God for the opportunity of another day.

I came home and changed and walked one hundred and twenty six times around my small home. In total that is five kilometers of walking. For the year so far I have done eighty four days of these walks. Recently I have started calling these "walks for peace". Our peace in Trinidad is threatened by a crime problem that is too much. In the world today, all eyes are glued to the escalation of events in Palestine.

I asked my friend Bard, why is more peace so hard to achieve? He replied with a couple of suggestions like competition for resources, differences in values and beliefs, greed and corruption, historical grievances, weak institutions and external interferences. This makes sense but really what is the root cause? Is there one thing that we can point to that is at the core of this?

I saw something on Twitter the other day that went something like this: One person said "I am only one person and what difference can I make?" and then eight billion persons said the same thing. Each one of us has the power to make a difference. One act of peace and one message of hope can make the world of difference. John Kennedy once said, "One person can make a difference, and everyone should try." I believe that we lose peace when we resign to thinking that we cannot make a difference. Today I walked for peace.

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