Thus the book Peaceful Earth: Spiritual Perspectives on Hope & Healing Beyond Terrorism came to fruition.

After reading the collection of stories & insights from all of these spiritual teachers, I was able to come to a place of peace & centeredness. I was able to go forward with a feeling of expectancy for all the good that could come about. I was filled with hope & peace. I know anyone that reads these powerful messages will also be able to stay centered in peace.

All the stories & perspectives in the book have a common theme. Even though there are many different authors & many different ways of saying or expressing their feelings, they all basically say the same thing.

And in order to demonstrate the 3 main themes I'd like to tell you a story. I often see things in stories, so I would like to share this one with you.

It was Christmas-time at a crowded bus station. One man stood out in the crowd. Why? Because he was rude & obnoxious. He had an angry face filled with hatred; you could see it in his eyes. His forehead was crinkled & he glared at anyone he made eye contact with.

Not only that, but he was obscenely drunk. He teetered & stammered as he bumped into anyone in his path. He had no concern for the space of others.

People at the bus station were getting upset at the actions of this vile man. Many of them decided to push him back when he bumped into them. One young man, pushed the drunken man when he bumped into him & said, “Watch where you’re going, Jerk.”

As the man pushed the drunken man, he became easily off balance & bumped into more people. Everyone started pushing back & yelling things like, “Jerk, Scum” This only fueled the anger already in the man’s heart. He cursed louder & became more obscene.

Before you knew it, everyone in the bus station was full of anger & disgust. Suddenly one man pushed the drunken man so hard, that he fell over & landed near a woman sitting on a bench with her 8 year-old daughter.

The mother responded, “Normally, dear, we’d help, but not in this situation. This is different.” The mother silently prayed that the vile man wouldn't come over & disturb them.

Suddenly, the little girl got up & went over to the man, who had at this time stood up.

The little girl looked the man directly in the eyes & said, “Sir, why are you so angry?”

The drunken man slurred & yelled at the little girl to go away. “Leave me alone,” he yelled.

The little girl was persistent. She pulled on his shirt & got the man’s attention. “Leave me alone, get away from me,” he slurred.

The little girl again, looked him in the eyes & said, “The reason I asked is because I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help?”

The man froze in his tracks. The angry look on his face softened & he broke into tears. The 3 of them; the drunken man, the little girl & the mother, cried together.

They found out that a year ago, the drunken man’s wife had died. They'd been living paycheck to paycheck as it was & w/ the high cost of funeral expenses & the downgrade to only one salary, the man took a turn for the worse.

He lost his car & lost his home & most importantly, he lost the love of his life. He became homeless. On that day, the year anniversary of his wife’s death, he had sold his only winter jacket in order to get bus fare so he could visit his wife at the cemetery.

Like the drunk man in the bus station. All we see on the outside is a disgusting man w/ no respect for others. We don’t know his situation, we don’t know his pain. We just see the outside manifestation of his anger. Yet, all anger has pain at its root.

In order to solve the problem, like Neale Donald Walsch said in the book, we must look at the cause, or the root of the problem. If we ignore the deep-rooted pain, or the cause of the anger, the problem will not go away & we'll never fully heal.

I love Jean Houston’s analogy in the book when she likens the terrorist events to a cancer. To further the analogy, if we rely on the doctors to remove the problem, (like we’re relying on government to solve the problem) thru surgery, but we continue to smoke, i.e., than we haven’t solved the root problem, which is the cigarettes. The doctors can keep performing surgery to remove pieces of the diseased lung, but until the culprit (cigarettes) is stopped the problem will continue to manifest.

And, even though I may not know what's going on in their life, I can sympathize with them, knowing that they must be in some kind of deep pain in order to be so angry or act foolishly. Again, it doesn’t mean I’m condoning the behavior, only trying to see or understand the cause of their behavior.

The second thing I do is pray. Whenever I feel like I’m not centered in peace, I pray. I acknowledge the perfect peace all around me. I confirm the peace of the world & my part in it. I utilize my chaplain training & “see” peace everywhere.

As part of my prayer I see myself connected to my friends & immediate family than connected to people in Africa, Australia, England, China, etc. I see a ball of energy joining us all together. And, I acknowledge that “we're all one.” I send love out to the world. I see it radiating outward to everyone.

Lastly, I remind myself of the readings & words of our great spiritual leaders.

I remember Alan Cohen’s story about being a Faith keeper, then I make a conscious decision to be one or I remember Dan Millman's statement about not giving power to “a small group of zealots, to not let them live in our head rent-free.”

Like St. Francis of Assisi said, “while you are proclaiming peace w/ your lips, be careful to have it more fully in your heart.”

Once peace is in the hearts of each & every one of us there'll be no violence, there'll be world peace. But we can’t expect world peace, when we can’t even be at peace w/our coworker or mother. So, again the 3 tools I use to stay centered in peace are: Sympathize, Pray & Remember.

Change starts at the individual level, then spreads like wildfire to the hearts & minds of everyone.