Let There Be Peace On Earth

<> One of my favorite songs is known primarily as a Christmas song... but I think it is good for all year round.... Let It Begin With Me.....   Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me... Let there be peace on earth the way it was meant to be... With God as our Father brothers all are we...  If we don't believe in God at all... perhaps we believe in The Great Spirit, Mother Earth, Allah or Buddah...   I still wish we could all work toward peace on earth...  I think part of peace on earth means loving and having compassion and respecting everyone...  So I keep talking about this every so often as my contribution to peace...  Hugs Elissa Rea wrote this essay a few years ago when she saw a tramp lying on the side of the road.    I think what she wrote is inspirational and so true... so I wanted to share it with you.<>                             How can you judge that tramp?      What happened to that poor tramp lying there on the pavement? What went wrong in his life? Maybe he was just like you and me with dreams in his heart and brilliant ideas in his mind. Surely he also had wonderful flights of fancy, where he could be the king of his own piece of ground, who looked out upon his green fields with proud in his heart. What happened to drive those dreams out of his heart and mind? Or maybe it’s still there, and that is why he is lying there drugged or drunk. Like an old torn up doll, thrown down there on the rubbish without even a second thought. Do you know that man with the red swollen eyes who is staring out in front of him into nothingness? With his dirty stinking clothes sitting in the way of decent folks on their way to work or their fancy apartments. Do you also shudder when he reaches out his dirty broken hands to beg for money or food? Do you think he doesn’t see how much you despise him when you turn away from him in disgust? Don’t you think he hurts when you kick his feet out of you way, or curse him for his uselessness?   Maybe he is too lazy to work, or he doesn’t see any reason in living any more. Could be he just struggles along every day until death comes to fetch him and release him from this pain of being alive, because he doesn’t have the guts to kill himself? Or maybe that is what he is doing right now, drinking himself to death slowly but surely. Dreaming in oblivion of all he had and lost or never even had.   Where are the wife and daughter he could have had, this supposedly once successful man. Waiting on them with dreamy eyes until they can be reunited with him. Without anyone’s love in his life he’s slumping there in the dirty sidewalk, alone and lost. Suffocating the dreams in his heart with alcohol and cheap drugs.   When you walk past him again, reach out and touch him with love. Try to give him something to eat, just a sandwich or a fruit or a mug of hot soup. Let him see care in your eyes and softness instead of a hard hateful look. Tomorrow it could be you lying there. Are you sure of what is going to happen in your future? Nobody is sure of that. With just a gesture of love you can try and make a little difference in the life of someone less fortunate than you. Everything we do in out lives comes back threefold, good and bad. What would you like to come back to you?