Peace to Me

Peace:

As the Tanzanians would say Amani

As the Arabs would say Salaam

And as we know it as peace, tranquillity.

But ,

There are kids out there that barely know the idea of peace,

They know how to say it, but not how to read it,

They hear it, but don't know how to write it.

I read A Thousand Splendid Suns recently, and the idea of peace to Mariam was unknown. The Afghanis kept undergoing attacks and they hardly saw any pure happiness, no peace. Just fear of attack.

To me, Peace is not just freedom from disturbance as described by the dictionary,

Peace is much more,

It’s the feeling you get when you’ve completed all your work,

It’s the feeling you get when you know you have food for the night,

It’s the feeling you get when the only sounds you hear are not people screaming or mothers crying, instead birds chirping and children laughing.

Peace is when the sun finally comes out during a cold day, and you just sit and let the warmth take over your face.

But some people are locked in a damp room, the sun will never come out for them. All they can do is wait, and hope for someone or something to help them.

And that is us, we can break down the walls of hate and war, we can try and use our weapons of voice and strength to call out the changes that we want. The chances that we want to see.

Because, I want to see someone smile happily with the sun on their face.

And just the way Mariam fought for the peace of her loved ones, I want to help people and let them experience the sound of the birds happily chirping or the children playing.

So in whatever way you find comforting, try breaking down the walls that leave people crippled with their voices hoarse from shouting, instead carefully take the opportunity and help people.

So think about it,

Because,

If a lot of people have a common goal, they can't stop all of us

Thank you.

—Suma, 2019