People Development - if you think about that in the context of product development, it is amazing what worlds will open up to you. Have you ever met someone and initially thought, I could never like this person because of how their lifestyle is, how they dress, the way that they speak, the color of their skin... have you ever done that? Of course you have, we all have. There is no room for peace in that world.


So, if we are to have peace in this world, if we are to have people development, relationship development, somehow we have to find that peace. You don't have to love that person, you don't have to even agree with that person. But how hard is it to understand?
It is really hard if you have that wall of irrationality up, there's no way that understanding will occur. "Talk to the hand," and it's really difficult to understand if you're holding your hand up, because what do you see? You don't see their face, you don't see what they are trying to convey. You only see the back of your own hand. And the back of your hand is pretty boring - a couple freckles, a broken fingernail... that's not really a good place to start in people development.

So, I guess it starts with you, with me. And while I stood in the desert, by myself, a couple days ago, and looked around me - a coyote passed me quietly, and guess what? there was no hate. An occasional bird tweet, a light breeze, the scuffle of a lizard's feet across some rock, but no hate. I really wanted to bring this peace back to my reality. I wanted to bring an opportunity for growth, personal growth. One point of light, one village, we can do it - I will do it. We can't not do it.


Life is to be shared, love is to be shared, peace is to be shared. I have learned this and I have lived what some would call a difficult life. Really, when I think bout it, it has not been that hard, it is not a hard life when you compare it to a pioneer, or an Iraqi woman whose husband has been killed, or a mother whose son was shot and killed while fighting in Iraq. I haven't had a hard life, so why is it so difficult or me and others like me to have rational thought, to have open minds, to remove the opinion that is, basically, the back of your hand.

Do you want to sit and look at the back of your hand for the rest of your life? Do you want to stay behind a closed door? Behind a wall? Open a door, raise the window. Listen and peace will come. Because all those different sounds you hear create a beautiful noise and they help you survive the beautiful mess that is Life, that is reality. Can that be a bad thing? I think not. A noise within.


by rayannethorn