When was the last time you listened to a stranger? Or to someone at work? Or even and especially your own family?

People need to feel heard in order to feel understood. Are we waiting to say what we want to say in a conversation, or are we listening to the words, the emotions, and the heart of the person in front of us?

It may sound simple, but saying you heard someone can make all the difference. It can be as easy as repeating back what you thought you heard, offering a smile, or even just nodding your head.

One of the rarest things lately is for people to feel seen. We can help by just listening. By embracing the pregnant pauses . . being okay with the whispering silence. If we’re lucky, we just might create a connection.

A Culture of Peace embraces far more than the mere absence of violence. It encompasses tolerance, nonviolence, sustainable economic and social development, democratic participation, equity, freedom of expression and respect for human rights. The transition from a culture of violence to a Culture of Peace requires the transformation of individual behavior as well as a refashioning of our institutional practices. Learning to live in peace and harmony is a long-term process. This requires the development of inner peace practices alongside structural transformative societal changes. This includes nurturing attitudes and practices that promote the expansion and integration of peaceful nonviolent principles. Peace education and storytelling each play a key roles in this trust-building process.

One way to understand the interconnected nature of peace is to think of a forest, or maybe even a smaller grove of trees. In order for this microsystem to be healthy, tens of thousands of factors contained within the interactions of the flora and fauna need to be in balance. These are deep relationships evolved over time between the trees, the mushrooms, the fungal networks, and the birds and other crawling creatures. Each of these alone can impact how well the ecosystem fares one way or another.

We are the same. Our relationships matter. When these relationships are respected and nurtured, the result is a healthy ecosystem. The result can be positive peace.

Placemaking means creating spaces that feel special and meaningful to people. A good place isn't just about having nice buildings or clean streets - it's about creating somewhere that makes people feel welcome and helps them connect with others. This could be a park where families gather for picnics, a community center where people learn new things together, or even just a comfortable bench where neighbors stop to chat.

All of these ideas come together to help us understand how the places we build affect peace in our communities. When we design cities well, we can help people feel more connected to each other and their environment. This means thinking carefully about everything from how wide the sidewalks are to where we put parks and benches. It also means listening to what people in the community want and need, rather than just having experts make all the decisions.

Non-violence is the belief and habit of putting into practice the idea that every human being has inherent dignity and deserves to be treated with kindness and respect.

Non-violence outright rejects the use of any form of violence as a means to achieve political or social goals. It aims to transform power dynamics and societal structures that perpetuate injustice in the long term, not just to resolve immediate conflicts.

Both Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. believed non-violence was inseparable from truth and love. That to engage in one meant to engage in them all, for they are each the idea, the action, and the consequence.

All people are Indigenous to somewhere. There are deep patterns of connection between people, land, and culture. Indigenization is the process by which Indigenous ways of knowing, being, doing and relating are incorporated into the educational, organizational, cultural and social structures of a society. There is much to learn from Indigenous ways and the organizational structures and processes of peace. Knowledge is deep and varied, and there are often more than one way to understand any given idea. If we are to solve the many intergenerational problems before us, we need to understand them together first.

It is no mystery that society is hurting. There are deeply wounded relationships across classes, sectors, and political affiliations. There are divides and painful disagreements among families, friends, and within neighborhoods.

There has been intergenerational trauma that has festered with neglect, and space needs to be given for healing to occur. There are a myriad ways we can facilitate this, but the fact remains that before we can move forward together, we must know where we are and how we got here. These are spaces of sharing, of loss, and of pain, yes. They are also spaces of storytelling, healing, and possible reconciliation.

Stories are at the heart of what it means to be human. They tell us who we are, where we came from, and what our dearest values are. The best stories take us to places we could scarce imagine before hearing them.

We have passed stories on for generations before us, and we’ll pass them on through the generations after we’re gone. These stories are often about the relationships we foster and how we can do better.

To build peace we need to understand one another. Sharing stories over a meal, in good company, or around a fire, bond us to one another. These stories help us gain a deeper understanding of our shared values and our collective aspirations.