This past week, my college had a candlelight ceremony in memory of those who lost their lives this past summer due to the amount of violent acts. We are a Catholic school so during this ceremony we sang a hymn. I don't remember what the hymn was called but it said "let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me." It got me thinking that we need this to be our prayer, our anthem. I also started to think about how we say how awful these acts of violence and terrorism are, but how many times have we started something with hate or violence? Sure we may not have killed anyone, but we have done things out of hatred.

I'm easily one of the biggest culprits of this. I have little to no tolerance for certain things that people do. More often times that not, I will lash out in anger get violent with my words. I haven't killed anyone, but my heart is in the same place as those who have killed people. The same could be said with anyone. It doesn't matter how far away from death you stay, your heart and mind are in the same place as those who killed those innocent people. I'm not saying that you are striving or going to kill someone. We are all human, and we get angry and act aggressively. We may be better in the law's eye but are our hearts better?

The way peace can be achieved is if we do stop and think about what we're going to do or say before we say it. It's the thing we've all learned in second grade, "think before you act" or "think before you speak." It's also similar to the idea of paying it forward. If we show someone peace or love or kindness instead of hate or violence, maybe the next time that person gets angry or upset they will do the same. It all starts with us.

So I challenge all of you to let peace on the Earth begin with you. We all seem really irrelevant in the grand scheme of things but we are all important in this big world. We are have this amazing impact that only we could ever fulfill. It just blows my mind to think that if we could have shown any number of these people who committed these violent acts a little kindness, maybe those people who lost their lives would still be with us. I'm not saying it's our fault, but I'm saying that we need to live lives of peace in order for there to be peace. If those of us who feel guilt and feel bad after we say or do something can't find a way to let peace start with us then how can those who aren't mentally stable get there. We all want peace, but none of really seem to want to do the work. Start doing the work and let peace start with us, with you, with me.