Peace Postcards

Ute Kelly, one of the few professors I genuinely admire, invited me to contribute to a project for the 50th anniversary of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford. I managed to send an entry. I had difficulty responding to the prompts right away; so I just wrote what was on my mind, and along the way, I came upon this reflection that I will probably never have had I not joined the project.

In times like this, when the world is in an uproar, I feel funny talking about peace.

On certain days, I find myself poles apart from the idealistic student that I was back in PSID. This is not to say that I now adhere to violence but the last three years have been tumultuous and it made me wonder, “Is peace truly attainable? Is it even real?” After the pandemic, my country was hit by wave after wave of political disasters. Furthermore, world affairs brought incessant news of suffering. As someone working in the field of peace and development, these things affect the work that I do, the place that I live, and the lives of the people whom I love. It is difficult to keep a bright disposition or be hopeful about it. However, if there is one thing I have carried with me from my time in Peace Studies/PSID, it is the thought that while we spend our days worrying about things, we lose the opportunity to be mindful of what is present and worth keeping. Just as how I learned it that anxious afternoon when I was submitting what I believed was a horrible dissertation, I was reminded of it again as I was looking for a photo that I could send as a postcard.

This was taken last February at the little coastal village where I used to spend my pre-school days and long summer breaks. Our hometown always had breathtaking sunsets. I remembered the sound of the waves gently lapping on the shore, the chill of the late afternoon breeze, and the smell of salt in the air… “how peaceful”, I caught myself thinking. Out of the blue, that question was answered.

Perhaps, it is indeed futile to worry about the failures of humanity. Now as I live each day fulfilling my role as a peace worker, I do my best to live with the adage that currently keeps me going but will not burn me out: set aside a time to hope, set aside a time to grieve. Set aside a time to be disappointed but give your best shot each day.