Peace vs Piece

The word, piece is from Welsh for, thingPeace, is from Latin, for pact, agreement, or covenant.  The nouns, peace and piece are parts of speech known as homophones.  They sound alike but have different meanings.

I don’t know what happened in the night I started contemplating the possible connections between these two words, but it wasn’t sleep.  I began a compare and contrast exercise in the wee hours that night.  I wondered:

How do you keep the peace when someone goes to pieces?

Which is best: holding one’s peace or speaking one’s piece?

If you must give someone a piece of your mind, can you have peace in your mind?

If you really want peace on earth, can you hate a piece of the earth?

Would you give up your piece of the pie in exchange for peace in your heart?

If everything falls to pieces, can peace make it whole again?

If I help you pick up the pieces of your brokenness, would peace on earth have begun with me?

If we reconcile all the pieces of the universe that have been separated by hatred, might peace be on the cusp?

If piece by piece we unify all of our separate parts into a whole, have we made peace with ourselves?

Can I make peace with life by becoming a piece of the action?

The piece of work that I am, is it possible to make peace with the disparate pieces of my life? 

Can I gather together all of my pieces to produce the sweet sound of harmony for an outcome of tranquility, congeniality, sympathy, serenity, stillness, and unity?

The song, Let There be Peace on Earth, by Jill Jackson-Miller and Sy Miller, was written the year of my birth, 1955.  What better anthem to have running through my head on a loop at such a time as this.

This song is one of my favorites, played this time of year, as we build up to the celebration of Christmas, the basis of which we honor the birth of Christ, the Prince of Peace.  Let me encourage you to find a version of Let There be Peace on Earth, that you like, on YouTube, or download it onto your phone, and let it run through your mind on a loop.

The 2020 contentious election and contentious virus, have tried to team up like a battering ram to steal our peace.  Maybe listening to Let There be Peace on Earth, could begin to shatter some of the broken pieces of cognitive shards planted in our minds this extraordinary year of 2020.  

Join me in hoping for peace, and praying for peace.  “Let this be the moment now,” when we choose peace, and give peace a chance.

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