Toward Peace

Perhaps some part of me still believes
peace is a destination,
a place we arrive, ideally together.

I notice how shiny it is, this belief,
like a flower made of crystal,
beautiful, but lifeless,

devoid of the dust and scuff
that come from living a real day.
Meanwhile, there is this invitation

to grow into peace the way real flowers grow
in the dirt. With blight and drought,
beetles and hail.

Meanwhile this invitation
to live in the tangle of fear and failure,
to be humbled by my own inner wars

and wonder how to find a living peace
right here, the peace that arrives
when we take just one step through the mess

toward compassion and notice
as our foot rises our heart also rises
and in that lifted moment

still scraping along in the dirt,
there is a peace so real we become light,
become the momentum that is the change.

by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer