New Year's Day reading

Today, I met a group of people at the Auburn Library outside in 37 degree weather to re-dedicate the Peace Pole that was installed approximately 14 years ago. Each year, this group meets and reads something that is representative of the diversity of our planet inhabitants and their belief systems. Sometimes we read something from the Jewish beliefs, the American Indian, the Buddhist, and many others. Today, I read the Humanist Invocation and it reads as follows:

"Let us rise each morning, and strive each day, to do only that which brings happiness and joy to others, and let us avoid doing things that cause others hurt and pain.

Let us use our minds and our reason to encourage behavior based on the mutuality and reciprocity inherent in human relationships, and let us always respect the dignity and worth of each other.

And let us, above all, love one another, not to obtain rewards for ourselves now or hereafter or to avoid punishment, but rather always to bring each other contentment and peace. May it always be so."

What a great tradition this is for me. I love waking up on the first day of a new year and knowing that I will affirm my belief along with a few other people, for a vision of world peace. Each years brings such tragedy and sadness but each new year brings along with it the possibility of something different arising from the beliefs of brave souls who choose not to perpetuate anger and hatred but only love.

I wish you all peace and happiness and the possibilities of finding peace within yourselves for others and being able to pass those feelings on to others. Forgive others from their trespasses, forget the anger and resentment, forget what it was that you stopped speaking to someone that meant the world to you. Is it really worth all the effort it takes to suppress the love that really wants to rise to the surface? Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.