International Institute For Human Empowerment, Inc.

"Holiday Prayer for Peace"

December 14, 2004

(As we hear of the traumas and feel the tensions of people at home and around the world, seeing the bigger picture may help us to make better decisions.)

To Love, God, Allah, Unseen Provider, Intelligence of the Universe, Higher Power, or by the name with which we feel comfort, we pray

We humans are confused though well meaning. We fight when we want peace. We are sometimes greedy when we want a good life for all. We punish even as we say we forgive. We show concern by garnering support for what we believe to be the best interests of our country, of our world.

We each think we have the right answers. Yet, in the loneliness of our heart, we wonder. We declare even as we doubt. We hope even as we appear not to care. We look for answers while we pretend to have them. We teach the children by our living example even as we wonder how we are to bring peace to our troubled world. Our confusion is covered by our insistence that we are right. If we were each right, would our world be so disrupted?

As we look for answers to right and wrong, religion and separation of church and state, death or life in prison, rights of the unborn versus stem cell research, daily choices of who shall live, and who shall die, we ask to become more aware of the bigger picture of human rights, freedom, and peace. And, especially, we ask to become more aware of our own responsibility for them.

Should we kill to stop terrorism? Should we be pacifists when others are dying at the hands of murderers? Should we kill in the name of justice? Should our policies be isolationist, or are those who have been given more also given more responsibility for others?

Should we allow parents who abuse to keep their children, while other loving adults wish for children? Should there be limits to what we can do to the weak and helpless of society-- children, ill, elderly, disabled, poor? Is marriage a place for freedom of expression with the one we love, or oppression?

Will we ever learn how to share power? We pray that we will.

We know that answers to the questions of human rights lie within our innate wisdom. Murder is power over another. Oppression is power over another. Power over others is wrong, regardless of who is the oppressor. Those of us who live in democracies know that even within democracies there are power struggles, but our hope is that the will that prevails will be for the higher good for all. To attain decisions for the higher good of all, however, means that we must work to raise the consciousness of all people to care for and about others. Help us to care more about caring.

We have often heard that we can mandate out the bad, but we cannot mandate in the good. Honesty, caring, awareness of the needs of all people, and decisions made in the best interest of all rather than a few, are essential. We must not only look to the needs of business, but also to the needs of the individual. We must not say that everything is good because I am comfortable when another is not. We must not stop until we correct our systems so that they provide the basics for all people-quality food, quality healthcare, quality education, and safe and loving environments. These are essential for the human spirit to survive and thrive, and then to be able to contribute to the good of all of society.

When we cheer at the death of another, are we not murderers within our own hearts? When we thrive at the expense of others, have we not lost our soul? Help us to replace hate with love, and greed with compassion.

Within each of us is the human ability to care about others. We will not become peaceful societies or be able to make decisions that are in the best interest of the human rights of all people until we become peaceful and caring within ourselves. Peace in our world begins with peace in each heart. May we find peace within so that we may be an influence for peace.

The deepest human responsibility is to care, and to work for the rights of all people. We will recognize and fulfill our deepest human desires when we work for the quality of life for others we know, and those we will never get to meet. May we have the knowledge and wisdom to learn to care for others who are different from ourselves. When we can care for all others, we have the opportunity to achieve peace.

Thank You for insight into our own human inner wisdom, the wisdom that we brought with us into the world. May we learn to access that wisdom in order to live more peacefully with our brothers and sisters around the globe.

In Unity and Peace,

Sue Kidd Shipe, Executive Director
International Institute For Human Empowerment, Inc.
P. O. Box 3920
Albany, New York 12203 USA
www.humanempowerment.org
sshipe@humanempowerment.org
(518) 393-9491

- 30 -