“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

As I lay in bed last night, trying to fall asleep — something that for me is usually not a problem, my right foot kept finding a wrinkle in the sheet.  That wrinkle might as well have been a sharp stick or a sheet of sandpaper.  Its presence underneath my foot became all I could think of and it filled my mind with discomfort and kept me awake.  Part of me wanted to lie there and just hope that it would go away.  After all, it was a chilly night, and my body already had warmed the cold sheets.  The thought of starting over was not an attractive idea.  I lay there fantasizing about freshly-washed, crisp sheets that fit the mattress so tightly that there was not a flaw in the sleeping surface.  I tried to erase the wrinkle with my foot; and I found myself becoming more and more frustrated that it would not simply disappear.  Finally, I threw back the covers, stood up from my bed, and pulled the lower corner tight.  I ran my fingers over the resulting smoothness.  Satisfied that the obstacle had been removed, I returned to my nest.  In only a minute it was warm again and I drifted off to sleep.

The solution was simple; yet in the moments that I lay there focusing on the wrinkle, all sorts of thoughts went through my mind.  I could change the sheets.  I had hoped to do that earlier in the day but postponed it when things got busy.  Maybe I really should think about a new mattress.  After all,the value of a comfortable night’s sleep is not something we should underestimate.  The problem grew bigger and bigger in my mind until I just might have considered one of those expensive Sleep Number beds as a solution.  I’ll bet the sheets never wrinkle on those beds!  In those frustrating minutes when the wrinkle seemed so big, the solution seemed to become more and more complicated.  I nearly gave up on finding a way to be comfortable; and I might have stayed right where I was, feeling angry and frustrated at the way things were.

What does all of this have to do with “Being Peace?”  Well, I guess it’s just as simple as a wrinkle in the sheet.  We become accustomed to living in our own little ways in our own little world.  When a wrinkle appears, we become unsettled.  What will we do about this change in our comfort?  Why should we lie awake at night and stew over something that has no business intruding on our peaceful existence?  Wrinkles happen.  Suppose that wrinkle appeared because my sweetheart, who lies on the other side of the bed, had pushed aside a wrinkle of his own and sent it rippling to the place at my feet.  Whose peace and comfort is more important, his or mine?  We share the world with many other people.  Each of us makes wrinkles from time to time that might disturb the smooth existence of another.  Each of us has the opportunity to choose how we will deal with the wrinkles.

Lying in bed and stewing over the wrinkles can lead us to magnify the problem to the extent that we might need to replace the whole bed in order to get a good night’s sleep, when the truth is that all we need to do is take our hand and gently smooth away a small wrinkle.  Being Peace is like that.  We dream of an outcome that seems complicated and far beyond our reach.  We may not think that peace on earth is any more within our reach than that expensive bed that we dream about on a sleepless night.  What we need to remember is to value each small effort to smooth away a wrinkle.  When we gently touch the problem and are careful not to create a new wrinkle for the others who share our world, we contribute to the growth of peace in our lives.  Our world may never seem wrinkle-free to all who live here, but we certainly can lend our hands to the process of creating a smooth and peaceful place where all are valued.  We may not be able to solve all the problems of the world single-handedly, but we can be peace as we go through life and lend a hand that smooths out the wrinkles.