My Granddaughter and Peace

This past Saturday my wife and I took our granddaughter to see Oz…The Great and Powerful. Visually it was a beautiful movie. I think I visited the Land of Oz in 1969 or was it Wonderland? I can’t remember. It was a wild time in my life. As we were walking to the car after the movie my granddaughter said, “l don't like movies with war and people fighting”. I thought that was a profound reflection from an eight year old. I told her that I agreed and that I preferred happy movies. When we got home she wanted to watch a “My Little Pony” movie. I assumed that would be a pretty happy movie but even in this cartoon there was fighting and war because some evil witches were after the Little Ponies. It seems that war and fighting are everywhere. The battle between good and evil, right and wrong, or simple differences in opinion, seem to surround us. It’s in our families, our workplaces, our communities, and our world. Most of the world seems to be pursuing happiness and peace while a minority seem dedicated to destroying the happiness and peace of others. This morning I read from the Buddha that “You are what you think”. There is also a teaching from the Laws of Attraction” that says you experience what you think. If our minds are full of negativity or hatred, if we constantly expect the worst to happen, then we will be people who make others crazy and unhappy while also bringing negativity and discord into our own lives. I told a co-worker earlier this week that the secret to inner peace is controlling your emotions. We cannot control in most cases what happens around us but we can control our emotional reactions. If your spouse or your boss or your children do something that upsets you, don’t react in anger or some other negative way. Maintain your cool and simply respond. Controlling one’s emotions does help us maintain our inner peace and when we are living in peace, we will not want to make war with others.