Forbearance and the Desire for Peace

Forbearance - I haven't used that word in a long, long time - if ever. But as often, Tom Ehrich in On a Journey, has touched me talking about "mutual forbearance". He states, "Mutual forbearance is the heart of a good friendship or long-lasting marriage. It's the glue that allows any human community to function. If we don't grin and bear it when people behave the way they do, we will spend our lives bristling, retaliating and hiding."

And then I turn to Phillip Newell, Christ of the Celts, who talks about the desire for peace, saying, "I believe that [the desire for peace comes] from a place deep in the human soul. It may be a place that we have become distant from. And it may be a place that has become hardened over by the pain and bitterness of life's experiences and divisions. But it is deep in the heart of our being. It does not belong exclusively to the Christian soul or the Muslim soul or the Jewish soul. It belongs to the human soul. And it is cause for great hope."

I think that each of us journeys in life toward death, and during that journey if we can soften up that hardened place in our souls - because all of us have hardened more or less - then we can bring forbearance to light and find a measure of peace.