The International Love Cafe Vol.6

By Dannette Lambert

My peace comes locked inside the pages of good book. Itﾕs hidden in a recipe I make for all my friends. It's encoded in Japanglish and weaves its way in out of all my best conversations. It transmits itself through small fingers reaching curiously into my hair. It loves to dance. Sometimes, when it's all alone, you might catch it singing. I dole it out in kisses and get it back in hugs.

It's not always happy. Peace sometimes means staring out into the world, feeling angry at all its injustices and using that anger as an impetus for change. It means always striving to be a better person and making an active attempt to consider how your actions, or lack there of, are affecting the world. It means changing your actions little by little to ensure that that affect is positive. If you want the world to be peaceful make yourself a living example of what that peace could look like.

My peace is a Saturday night party when all of my friends are out and all of the DJﾕs are dropping great tracks that they've painstakingly picked out over the course of a week in the hopes of making us all dance. It's always the same party. Maybe the musicﾕs a little different, the venue changes, but the vibe's always the same. It's always the same greeting, "Hisashiburi da ne."It's been a while. And if it's only been a day or a week? Then it seems like a while. Too long for good friends to be apart. Too long, the space between the times when we celebrate life and dance and love and remind ourselves of how fortunate we are to be alive in this time and place.

These parties aren't the hedonistic, base pleasures they may appear to be. They are the continual rejoining of a community. They are the family reunions that keep the connections going, that remind us all that we are not alone, that you belong to someone. They let you know that you can go out in the world, make your discoveries and fight your battles, and when you are ready your home is here, anxiously waiting to reclaim you. They are our examples of what a peaceful world could be.

Kisses, my darlings...and PEACE!!