Diane Dreher

In these challenging times, many of us are longing for peace. But we may be confused about exactly what it is. What does peace look like and feel like? It has been described as:

 

·       A state of calm, security, and wellbeing

·       A state without fear

·       A state of wholeness, serenity, and trust

 

How do we reach this state of peace? Too many of us have fallen into a divisive dualism—the Manichaen heresy that spread across western Europe in the Middle Ages. And this belief still persists today: that we can only find peace by defeating those we perceive as evil. Thinking this way makes us see those who differ from us as the enemy, locking us into defensive and often violent struggles. This is not peace.

 

Peace is a state of harmony and inclusiveness, where together we find common ground. It is the power of "perfect love" that "casts out fear." Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King used this power to transcend and transform conflict, seeking the common bond of peace and justice for all.

 

And how do we find this peace? At church, we used to sing "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me."  Peacemakers throughout history have realized this simple truth—that we all have the power to make peace, beginning with ourselves. And that we must begin with ourselves, for we cannot make peace around us if our hearts are filled with fear and hatred.

 

Research has shown how profoundly our personal energies and actions affect those around us. You may have felt this for yourself. Studies have found that even a friendly word and smile can bring greater wellbeing and peace of mind to both people—the giver and receiver, and can also begin a positive ripple effect, filling entire neighborhoods with a greater sense of connection and community (Fredrickson, 2009; 2013).

 

We can all become peacemakers, beginning right here and right now, by cultivating greater connection, greater understanding, greater harmony within and around us.

 

You can cultivate greater peace today:

·       By slowing down to listen more carefully to those around you.

·       By being kinder to everyone, including yourself.

·       By seeking common ground beneath your differences.

 

For there is always common ground. We're standing on it. It's this beautiful planet we call home.

 

I wish you greater peace each day.

 

References

Fredrickson, B.L. (2009). Positivity: Discover the upward spiral that will change your life. New York, NY: Harmony Books.

Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Love 2.0: How our supreme emotion affects everything we feel, think, do, and become. New York, NY: Hudson Street Press.

When I grew up, my father was an Air Force pilot and I followed him on his assignments around the world. The summer after I graduated from high school in Germany, my family returned to the states on an ocean liner. I still recall how I felt that morning at dawn when our ship entered New York harbor, passing the Statue of Liberty: I was coming home. 

 

In the many years since the statue arrived in this country in 1886, hundreds of thousands of people have been welcomed by Lady Liberty, feeling a sense of coming home to comfort, shelter, and new possibilities.

 

 As the words of poet Emma Lazarus (1903), inscribed on the statue's pedestal, declare:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
. . .Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

 

In today's tumultuous times, it's often hard to feel at home. Many of us have lost the vital sense of belonging (Samuel, 2022), feeling distressed, isolated, and disconnected (Taylor, 2022).

 

If you've been missing a sense of home, take a moment now to:

Recall a time when you felt at home.

Connect with a comforting memory of that time.
Where were you? What did it look like? Who was there with you?

Bring that feeling to mind again. 
Feel yourself comforted, connected to a deep sense of home and belonging.
Focusing on your heart, take a deep mindful breath and slowly release it, taking in that feeling of coming home. 

Then, when you're ready, return to the present moment.
 

In the days to come, keep that feeling in mind. Ask how you can come home more often—perhaps by returning to a familiar spiritual tradition, pausing for a mindful sense of presence or expressing gratitude for the gifts and blessings of each day.

 

I wish you joy, peace, and a deep sense of home.

 

References

 

Lazarus, E. (1903). "The New Colossus." On the plaque at the Statue of Liberty. Public domain.

 

Samuel, K. (2022). Belonging: Finding connection in an age of isolation. New York, NY: Abrams Press.

 

Taylor, S. (2022). Disconnected: The roots of human cruelty and how connection can heal the world. Alresford, UK: John Hunt Publishing.

 

Despite all the political discord in our world, this season of  Spring is a time for renewal in many traditions.

 

For Catholics, it's a time for Lent and Easter,

For Muslims, the holy month of Ramadan,

For Jews, the festival of Purim,

And for the Chinese, New Year. This year is the year of the horse.

In many areas it's a time to begin Daylight Savings time.

 

For all of us, it's time to see the first signs of spring—

·       Golden daffodils blooming,

·       Buds and new leaves on deciduous trees,

·       Birds making their nests and singing in the trees above us.

 

How can you discover these signs of renewal in your life? Despite the discord around us, there are always signs of renewal in Spring.  

 

By connecting with some of these, you can find hope for new harmony in the days to come.

 

Take a few moments now to connect with the signs of Spring.

Can you look out your window to see signs of new life?

Or step outside to look around you?

Or think of an image of Spring you recall?  

 

·       What was it--New flowers in your garden? A blossoming fruit tree on your street? Something else? 

·       Pause to take a deep mindful breath and feel yourself one with this sense of new life, embracing the Springtime of renewal in the world around you. 

·       Focusing on your heart, take another deep mindful breath and slowly release it, taking in that feeling of Springtime.  

·       And when you're ready, return to your day's activities, refreshed and renewed.

 

In the time to come may each day bring a sense of renewal to you and to this beautiful planet we call home.

 

I wish you joy on the path.

 

Years ago, when astronauts took the first picture of earth from other space, we saw this image of our small blue planet, glowing with life, surrounded by the darkness of space.

 

In this vision,  there were no political borders, no divisions—only one small, radiant world. Our planetary home.

 

No matter how we attempt to construct political borders and too often construct walls of fear and domination, these boundaries are only temporary, shifting with time.

 

When I was growing up, my parents had a world globe that is now obsolete, after many changes in countries in Africa and in the former Soviet Union. What remains is the earth beneath our feet, the common ground we share on this small blue planet we call home.

 

For this new year, I invite you to focus on this image, the radiant blue planet that unites us, in this brief reflection.

 

• Recall that image of our small blue planet, glowing in the darkness of space, our oceans and lands blending into patterns of harmony.
• Feel yourself one with the earth, embraced in an expanding sense of oneness that connects you with all the people, places, lands and oceans, plants, and animals in our world.
• In your personal and political life, transcending any walls and borders you may have put between yourself and others, feel yourself connected now in the universal light of oneness. 
• What do you feel as you visualize this? Focusing on your heart, take a deep mindful breath and slowly release it, taking in that feeling of oneness.

You can take this vision of oneness with you to create greater harmony in your life and new possibilities for peace in our world in the days to come.

 

I wish you joy this year.

 

Diane

_________________

 

 Photo: "The Blue Marble" is a famous photograph of the Earth taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft en route to the Moon at a distance of about 29,400 kilometres (18,300 mi). It shows Africa, Antarctica, and the Arabian Peninsula. Public domain.

 

Have you been missing a sense of community? If so, you're not alone.  Our former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned of an epidemic of loneliness and isolation in this country (2023). Today, many of us spend more time connecting to our electronic devices than to the people in our lives.  And the years of isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic further eroded our personal connections, leading to the alienation, polarization and political discord around us.

 

Yet we need community. Connecting with the people around us brings us a sense of home, belonging and trust in our world. A recent report by the Harvard Study of Adult Development found that strong relationships keep us healthier and happier, enabling us to live longer, more fulfilling lives (Waldinger & Schulz, 2023). And becoming part of a supportive community brings us shared resources, collective wisdom and a heartfelt sense of connection.  

 

I learned about this years ago while traveling by train through Italy. It was getting late when the people in my compartment discovered that the dining car hadn't been connected at the last station, which meant we'd go without dinner. But then, the German woman and her daughter sitting across from me offered to share their cheese and fruit. The Polish woman beside me produced salami and a jar of sparkling strawberry jam. I brought out a loaf of bread. And a young French student shared his bottle of wine. Together, we created a picnic dinner. Sharing food and stories, that night we became a community. In all my travels, I don't remember a single meal I'd eaten in a dining car, but I still recall the joy when five strangers shared an evening meal together.

 

What about you? Can you recall a time when you felt a deep, joyous sense of connection and community? It could have been recently or years ago. Just recall it now. What were you doing? Who were you with? And how did you feel? Take a moment to feel this sense of connection right now.

 

If you'd like to bring more of this joy of connection into your life, you can begin rebuilding community by reaching out with one small action at a time. You could reconnect with a loved one or close friend, join a group in your community, church or synagogue, or volunteer for a cause you believe in.

 

You could also begin practicing what psychologist Barbara Fredrickson (2013) calls "micromoments of connectivity," waving at a neighbor driving by, exchanging a kind word to a colleague or the grocery store clerk.  These small actions benefit both the giver and receiver, raising our mood, relieving stress and reducing inflammation. And they can create a positive ripple effect, building a stronger community all around us.

 

This holiday season, you can bring more of the joy of connection and community into your life and our world, one small act at a time.     

 

I wish you joy on the path.

 

References

Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Love 2.0: How our supreme emotion affects everything we feel, think, do, and become. New York, NY: Hudson Street Press.

 

Murthy, V. H. (2023). Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General's advisory on the healing effects of social connection and community. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf

 

Waldinger, R., & Schulz, M. (2023). The good life: Lessons from the world's longest scientific study of happiness. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

 

Photo: Joe DeSousa (2015). Cheese, wine and bread in Cafe Vavin, 18 Rue Vavin, 75006 Paris.

Creative Commons Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cheese,_wine_and_bread_in_a_sidewalk_cafe_in_Paris,_June_2015.jpg

 

Welcome to winter, the darkest season of the year, when people from many traditions mark the holidays with candles to light the darkness.

 

This winter, we, too, can light candles of hope to bring greater light to our lives and brighten the world of darkness, discord, and division around us.

 

Hope is not just wishing things were better. It's taking action by setting a goal we can believe in, moving forward with pathways or steps toward our goal, and strengthening our agency, or motivation to keep moving forward (Snyder, 1994). Here are two hope-promoting practices from my new book, Pathways to Inner Peace (Dreher, 2025).

 

The Light of Personal Connection. We need community, supportive connections with the people around us to feel a sense of belonging and trust in our world. The sense of community has been lost to many of us in recent years. Former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy (2023) warned of an epidemic of loneliness and isolation in America and this year the World Health Organization has reported an alarming rise in anxiety and depression worldwide (2025).

 

Yet each of us can cultivate community by connecting with the people in our lives. This includes not only our loved ones and close friends but what psychologist Barbara Fredrickson (2013) calls "micromoments of connectivity," a smile or kind word to people we encounter in daily life, from a neighbor, a colleague, or the grocery store clerk. These brief connections benefit both the giver and the receiver, raising our mood, relieving stress, and reducing inflammation. And these small connections can create a positive ripple effect, building greater community around us. 

 

The Light of Gratitude. Pausing to appreciate the good in our lives can improve our health and wellbeing.   Psychologist Robert Emmons (2007) has found that grateful people are healthier and happier, better able to cope with stress, more optimistic, resilient, and connected to others. Simply reflecting on three things we're grateful for at the end of the day, or counting our blessings as we drift off to sleep, can bring greater light to our lives, build our trust in a loving creator and restore our faith in life (Watkins et al., 2024).

 

I invite you to join me in these two practices to connect with the light of hope.

• Spreading the light of personal connection. By reaching out to a friend or loved one with a text, card, or call.  By making it a point to share a "micromoment of connectivity" with someone you see today. Even little connections can help light the darkness.
• Pausing for a moment of gratitude at the end of the day. Giving thanks for three good things in your life—from the natural beauty around you, to the stars sparkling overhead, connecting with a dear friend, your favorite music, a moment of inspiration, or something else. A daily gratitude practice can light up your life with hope for the days to come.

 

I wish you joy, love, and light throughout this winter season.

 

References

 

Dreher, D. (2025). Pathways to inner peace. Hollister, CA: MSI Press.

 

Emmons, R. A. (2007). Thanks! How practicing gratitude can make you happier. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

 

Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Love 2.0: How our supreme emotion affects everything we feel, think, do, and become. New York, NY: Hudson Street Press.

 

Murthy, V. H. (2023). Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General's advisory on the healing effects of social connection and community. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf

 

Snyder, C. R. (1994). Making hope happen. New York, NY: Free Press.

 

Watkins, P., Emmons, R., Davis, D., & Frederick, M. (2024). Thanks be to God: Divine gratitude and its relationship to well-being. Religions, 15, 1246.

 

World Health Organization. (2025, Sept 2). Over a billion people living with mental health conditions. https://www.who.int/news/item/02-09-2025-over-a-billion-people-living-with-mental-health-conditions-services-require-urgent-scale-up

 

 

When I was 12, I learned in my social studies class about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. That night at dinner, I asked my parents why this happened. "We were at war with Japan," my mother said.

 

I knew that my parents' families were descended from German immigrants, "Why didn't the government put your families in internment camps?" I asked. "We were at war with Germany too." 

My mother cut me off angrily, responding, "You just don't understand."

 

Oh, but I did. I realized how dehumanizing and dangerous it is to label people we see as different, to see them as a threat.

 

My father was an Air Force pilot, and I'd met many people from different cultures on his assignments throughout the United States, Europe, and the Far East. I enjoyed learning about people's different customs, different languages, and beliefs. And I also saw how we had a lot in common.

 

When we react to peoples' differences as a threat, a fear reaction shuts down our higher brain centers (LeDoux, 1996). We reduce another human being to that one quality that is "different," labeling them by race, gender, culture, age, social class, sexual orientation, occupation—and the list goes on.

 

This kind of labeling is not only disrespectful to the other person but also to ourselves, for it disconnects us from our common humanity, the underlying unity of life.

 

What's the alternative? Respect for ourselves and others, the ability to listen and learn from our differences, to expand our experience, to discover new possibilities.

 

If you'd like to expand your awareness of differences, you can join me in this brief meditative exercise.

• First, close your eyes or shift them into a gentle downward gaze. Then breathe in, focusing on your heart, and slowly breathe out.
• As you continue breathing slowly and deeply, think of someone who is different from you—someone out of your comfort zone. 
• Is this someone from another culture? Another country? Another race?  Religion? Age? Occupation? Political party? Or some other quality that feels different to you? Breathe in as you visualize this person standing before you now.
• Then feel a radiant white light surrounding this person, surrounding you, filling you with greater curiosity, compassion, and respect.
• As you continue breathing slowly and mindfully, shift your attention to the natural world around you where  differences are part of the universal harmony of opposites, as the Tao Te Ching puts it, yin and yang--day and night, sunlight and shadow, sound and silence, earth and sky.

And the next time, you find yourself starting to judge and label someone for being different, pause for a mindful moment and see both of you surrounded by the light, connected in the deeper harmony of all that is.  

 

I wish you joy on the path.

 

Reference

 LeDoux, J. (1996). The emotional brain. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

 

Many of us are feeling distressed by the division and discord around us. If you've been wondering how to heal the painful political polarization, you could take a cue from the Renaissance.

 

Let me explain. When we're feeling threatened and stressed, we go into survival mode—reacting with fight, flight, or freeze (LeDoux, 1996). Our higher brain centers and creative capacity shut down to focus on the threat, and we fall into the false dilemma of either/or—us or them, win or lose. We see anyone who disagrees with us as the enemy, run away and hide, or freeze into helplessness.

 

The survival reaction can save our lives in an emergency, but most of the time it limits us. Stuck in the false dilemma, we can't use our innate creative capacity to respond with resilience, to discover new possibilities.

 

The Renaissance was one of the most creative periods in human history. Theologians began teaching that each person had been given unique strengths as a gift from God, that it was each person's duty to discover, develop, and use them to serve the Lord, fulfill their destiny, and contribute to their community.

 

When people believed that they had these personal strengths, they began to discover and use them, leading to unprecedented creative contributions to literature, science, leadership, and the arts (Dreher, 2008).

 

In our own time, positive psychologists have found that each of us has our own personal character strengths and when we discover and use them, we are happier, healthier, and more successful (Peterson & Seligman, 2004; Seligman et al., 2005). You can discover your own top character strengths by taking the free VIA character survey at https://www.viacharacter.org/.

 

You can connect with your top strengths now by looking back in your memory to a time when you felt a deep sense of joy, energy, and empowerment.

 

What were you doing—Connecting with a partner? Participating in a sport?  Creating art or music? Solving a problem? Feeling a sense of awe in nature? Or something else? Feel yourself back there now. What were you doing? What did it look like and feel like?  

 

Now focus on a personal strength you were using. Was it creativity, curiosity, love of learning, bravery, persistence, integrity, love, kindness, fairness, leadership, spirituality, appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, or something else?

 

What strength stands out for you?

 

Ask yourself, "What is one step I can take to use more of this strength in my life today?"

Imagine yourself doing this. What would it look like and feel like?

 

Now you can take the first step in using this strength. You can transcend the limiting false dilemma. By bringing your own creative gifts to the world, you can begin creating a new Renaissance within and around you.

 

I wish you joy on the path

 

References

 

Dreher, D. (2008). Your personal Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press.

 

LeDoux, J. (1996). The emotional brain. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

 

Peterson, C. & Seligman, M. E. P, (2004). Character strengths and virtues. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N, & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60, 410-421.

 

Picture, Renaissance tapestry and Dante candle from Eve Solis. 

Years ago, a friend sent me a prism to hang in my window. Now each morning, dozens of tiny rainbows dance across my walls—waves of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. All these rainbows emerging from the white light—their colors blending into rainbow harmonies.

 

These days, our nation and our world are too often divided by our differences. Our colors can become polarized—red or blue, right or wrong, us or them—instead of the greater harmony of rainbow colors emerging from the same white light.

 

Today, I invite you to visualize this greater harmony.

 

• Take a deep breath to relax and slowly breathe out.
• Breathing in, breathing out, feel your shoulders relax, your mind becoming more peaceful.
• As you continue breathing slowly and deeply, imagine a rainbow before you, with its radiant colors arching over you.
• Feel the colors surround you and feel yourself becoming part of this rainbow harmony.
• As you feel the harmony around you, recognize the different parts within you blending into radiant patterns.
• See the different colors blending into greater harmonies. Realizing that we're all connected in these patterns of light.

Later today, when you go outside or just look out your window at the natural world around you, focus on nature's patterns—the bright blue sky, the green trees, bright colored flowers, and, at the end of the day, the radiant rose and golden sunset. All the colors of nature blending together into patterns of greater harmony.

 

Then pause to reflect on how all of the colors of your life blend together, and how your life blends these colors into an overarching unity where there is no discord, no division, only a greater harmony that includes us all.

 

I wish you greater joy, beauty, and harmony in the days to come.

 

These days there's so much darkness, division, and discord in our world that we can often lose hope. What we need now is the light of inspiration.

 

Ever since I read her autobiography in my teens, I've been inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt, by how she reached out with courage and compassion to touch the lives of so many people during the Depression and World War II.

 

As Adlai Stevenson said at her memorial service:

"She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness and her glow has warmed the world."

 

I invite you to connect with the light of inspiration for yourself.

 

Take a few moments now to reflect. Relax and center as you slowly breathe in and breathe out. You can put your hand on your heart if you wish.

 

As you continue breathing slowly and deeply, think of someone who inspires you. This can be someone you know, someone in history, someone whose life you encountered in a book or a movie.

 

Who is it that inspires you? See this person in your mind. Take a moment to feel their inspiration now as you connect with them in your imagination. 

 

Now ask yourself, "What do I admire most about this person?" Pause for a moment as you focus on one or two of these qualities. What were they-- courage, compassion, resourcefulness, perseverance, creativity, or something else? Recall how this person expressed these qualities.

 

Then ask yourself, "How can I bring more of these qualities into my own life?"

What can you do to bring more of these inspiring qualities into the world? Imagine yourself doing this.

 

Finally, ask yourself, "What is one small step I can take to begin?"

 

When you're ready, prepare to that that first step.

 

 

I wish you joy as you follow the light of inspiration to bring more light to the world.