Day 18 - Debbie Castle

Dear Friends,

I’m writing to you to share a great experience of lightness and happiness I encountered today. It was 20 degrees below zero and getting dark when I walked across the Superstore parking lot and noticed a parked SUV with a logo on the side doors that read ‘World Peace’. I was curious and wondered what it was about. So, I dropped the groceries in the car and walked over to find out. As I got closer, I could see a young man sitting behind the driver’s seat with a red woolen hat with World Peace in bright yellow letters on the brim and a red hoodie with World Peace in bold yellow letters across the front! There was no doubt about the message that was being proclaimed “World Peace”! As I walked up to the driver’s side, he rolled down his window, I greeting him and asked “so what’s all this, what are you all about?” He smiled broadly and said “Just that - World Peace, when we have peace inside each one, we can have peace in the world”.

We struck up a conversation about the meaning of peace. There were many experiences of peace we shared in common. For both of us, peace was an inside job! Peace was something you took care of as the essence of the self. Deep inside, we are all beings of peace but it can get lost when we encounter people or situations that want to shout their opinions and shake up the world around them. It takes great respect for the peace inside the self and knowing it also exists deep inside others, to remain stable, be calm and give calmness and love in any situation. We both adhered to this philosophy, practice, and way of being – no matter what we were faced with. We understood it takes a loving tolerance and patience to stay with the person or situation long enough for our own vibration of peace to influence their stirred-up state. But it works every time. 

So as our conversation continued, he jumped out of the vehicle and as we spoke, he turned to song and shared a loving rap to peace, happiness and living in the present moment. It was a great set of lyrics that really spoke to me. Then he said let’s dance and as we danced in the cold in the parking lot, he sang another tune about happiness! It was light, easy and in the now. 

We spoke further about the importance of not filling our heads or hearts with regrets of the past or fears of the future, but to live each moment with love for the self and for each one we interacted with during a day. This practice of seeing the goodness deep inside others and letting go of judgements about who they are or what they said, frees us to be true to the spirit of ‘love thy neighbour’. 

It was 20 minutes filled with joy, lots of smiles, honest love for humanity and a willingness to go the extra mile to send happiness and joy into a world that seems to have forgotten how to express kindness and love with all living beings. 

I left with the vibration of peace and nonviolence in my heart and with a bundle of hoodies in a bunch of different colours to visit a family who lived nearby. I shared the story of World Peace and gave them each a hoodie! It’s as simple as that when we live peace and nonviolence, we attract peace and inspire peace in others. The more we live peace, the more the people around us can find their peace deep inside. With peace, nonviolence is a practical practice, something we all can be and do.

As World Peace continues his journey spreading peace across Canada, I thought about the beauty of the people I know in rural towns and villages around the world who live peace and that made me think of my peace walker friends. They have walked thousands of kilometers for world peace and I joined them here in Nova Scotia and in India for a few hundred of those kilometers. When we walk for peace, there is often a drummer leading the way, there is silence and joy when we arrive in villages and rejoicing along the way as people come out of their homes to find out what we’re all about. They love that its purely and simply about reminding ourselves of the peace inside. These friends have walked across Canada, the USA, India, Europe, Japan and many other countries as living examples of peace, who inspire others.

One of these walkers has set up a museum on a hill in his front yard acknowledging people who spread the message of peace, Gandhi, Kasturba and King among other busts of these honest people, who breathed in peace and breathed it out to the world.

As I reflected on my recent encounters with these two souls, I understood that peace has many expressions. There is no one way to express and experience peace. You could drive across a cold country in the midst of winter with a carload full of hoodies announcing world peace AND you could walk across a country interacting with individuals as you walked. AND you can sit in meditation every morning, a practice I have taken up to bring the peace inside of me, out to the world. And in every faith, we do this. We are peace, we can live peace and the change is possible.

Do what you are born to do, find your peace inside and share it with every soul on the planet in a way that leaves you inspired and those around you uplifted.

From my heart of peace to yours, 

Debbie Castle

Community member and Co-creator in People Development Ltd.
Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada