Peace As Protest

The shock of the Ukraine war in 2022 hit me hard. I remember waking up one February morning to the grim realization that the world had fundamentally shifted while I slept. Vladimir Putin sent his troops across the border into another country’s sovereign territory and shattered the world peace I had long taken for granted.

Suddenly one leader had broken the rules of world order, and we were left with the disturbing realization that our tranquility could easily be taken away.

Of course, the chaos and violence of this world has only increased since that time, making the promise of a harmonious future seem further and further away.

But, is our peace really so fragile? Are our lives forever subject to the whims of world leaders, in our own country or half a world away?

I say, no.

Peace isn’t something our leaders grant us—it’s a condition we create for ourselves in countless small moments throughout our days.

We’re always choosing what we cultivate, whether we realize it or not.

I once had a friend who complained all the time. He could find fault with just about anything—the price of gas was too high, his workload was too heavy, he didn’t have enough vacation time, the waiter uncorked the wine the wrong way, his gym played bad music, the tailor used the wrong stitching to hem his pants, the coffee at work was too bitter, you should never have to tip on tax.

Whether at work, at home, or on vacation, for him, something was always going wrong.

And he made a point of venting his frustrations to everyone around him. In a sense, my friend created wars just like Putin did. He sent his complaints across the border into everyone else’s sovereign territory, and felt fully justified in doing so.

I eventually came to understand that my friend was teaching me a powerful lesson:

Our internal state creates our external world.

He was showing me the consequences of his negativity. He had made a habit of seeing the world through complaining eyes, and life kept giving him more and more situations to complain about.

My friend eventually left the job with the heavy workload, too little vacation time, and bad coffee, only to find that his new position was even more demanding and left him no time for vacations or coffee.

Of course, he didn’t set out to be negative or to harm anyone. He wasn’t a mean person. This, to him, was just the way life worked.

But that wasn’t quite right—this was the way his life worked.

What if we cultivated peace in our lives with the same dedication as my friend cultivated his complaints?

Not because it will stop all wars or end all violence, but because it will stop our internal wars, and prevent them from spilling over into other people’s territory.   

Maybe that means politely excusing yourself from conversations that turn to gossip. Or remembering that the cable support technician on the other end of the phone is a person, just like you, who isn’t responsible for the cable company’s issues. It might mean limiting the time you spend looking at news reports each day, and taking a pause before you react to anything. Or choosing to look past your waiter’s service issues, and just enjoying your meal instead.

And that complaint you’re dying to voice to your friend? Maybe it means taking a long, deep breath and asking yourself if, just this once, you could keep it to yourself.

What if the most powerful thing we can do about world peace is to choose it in this moment, and then the next, and then the next?

Maintaining your inner peace is like being part of an underground resistance force, working silently to subvert a world that thrives on our fear, anger, and anxiety. Protecting your inner territory helps free you from that cycle, and it creates external pathways of peace for others to follow. As I’ve written before, we affect each other in large and small ways all the time.

What would it be like to participate in a march, sign a petition, or support a cause from a place of peace instead of outrage? Maybe it would feel like a calm certainty, a firm knowing that, yes, this is the right thing for me to do, this is the cause I want to support.

Your internal peace might just be the ultimate form of protest. When you maintain your center despite the news and despite the complainers, you deny their invasions and remain a sovereign unto yourself.

Peace exists inside us, and no one can take that away, unless we let them.

We can’t control world leaders, but we can control ourselves.