I live in a very fear based religious community- the people here look for crosses around your neck to see if you are a safe and good person. Not too far from my home lies a very "open-minded" city called Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ann Arbor is an intellectual "peace" hub and you will find peace flags strewn along many of the streets. Strangely enough, many peace flags are along side flags of the war minded violent bounty hunter and soldier Che Guevara. I myself witnessed two people fighting and threatening each other in an Ann Arbor Whole Food parking lot over a parking spot. The funny thing is that these two people had "Co-exist" and peace bumper stickers on their cars (one of them a hybrid). A few years ago, I was verbally accosted by a hippie woman with four children in Ann Arbor for having a leather purse, yet again, a few months later for not breastfeeding my children past the age of one. I used to believe that people in Ann Arbor had it all figured out and I longed to live there and be apart of that "energy". Then through years of thoughtful observation - I have found that there was the same sort of hypocrisy and fear there that existed in closed minded religiously conservative communities. I describe it as a sort of schizophrenic peaceful loving /anger activism, based on an intellectual one upmanship. My conclusion, is that people are generally more alike than they are different.

What do we do? Well, most of this community angst is based on a fear to truly connect with others, and an inability trust and to be honest with our self and others. Do we pretend to have arrived at enlightenment? Do we use that as a stick to poke people with or measure each other by? I have seen the best in worse in myself and others, I begin with myself by saying, I pretend to be nothing other than a human that lives, breathes, hates, loves, cares..and even makes judgments at times. While I cannot change the world, I can strive for honest communication among my friends and loved ones-life is too short to push people away so that we can fold our hands atop a lonely pedestal-whether the pedestal is a cross, a vegetable, a breast, or a peace sign.

I would like to encourage others to look at what beliefs separate them from others-

and then ask why? Then I want to tell you, it is OK and nobody is perfect...being aware of who and what we are is the first step in healing and enlightenment..

It is only when we pretend and lie to ourselves and others do we stop growing, healing and changing.

Where is the peace? It is within ourselves- it is accepting ourself and accepting our human nature-becoming aware is the next step...aware of what makes us angry and what bothers us. Trying to force ourselves to believe that we can attain a state where we never experience the human emotion of anger, sadness or rage-only sets us up to create a war within ourself and creating a faux peace exterior on the outside. There by separating ourself, from ourself and then others. Let's stop hiding our shame and start living our truth!

To the Journey of healing, Aurore