Conditions for Peace: Safety

I had planned to do an entire post about the conditions for peace (on any scale).  I did my academic research, and prepared my citations.  But then the topic got too big, and I stalled out.  So today, I'm going to bite off a smaller piece.

One of the conditions for peace - self/inner, peace with others, world peace - is a feeling of safety.  If the party(ies) don't feel safe, peace will elude them.  I'm writing today specifically about my own sense of peace and how I jeopardized it by creating a lot of unsafety for myself.  Let me explain.

I am not generating a lot of income.  I'm fortunate that I can fall back on savings while I launch a new business in 2010, but it's vital that I be judicious in my spending.  However, I spent way too much this Christmas on gifts, money I didn't really have.  I love to give gifts; I love to delight the people in my life.  But it's not really a "gift" if it's not paid for.  At best, it's a debt (since it went on my credit card).  And it's taking its toll on my sense of safety - financial safety - and therefore on my sense of peace - it's hard to feel peaceful when you're worried about your dwindling bank balance and mounting credit card bills.  So I'm committing right now to getting my financial house in order and living within my means while I begin generating an income.

One facet of my new business will be family law mediation.  I'm seeing that couples in conflict will have a hard time coming to a peaceful resolution if one or both parties feels unsafe around money, custody, power.  Restoring a feeling of safety will be the first step, I think, in working with couples in conflict.  I'm imagining ways to do that would include agreeing on a vision, setting intentions, setting behavioral guidelines.

I think of "peace in the Middle East," and it seems clear that there can be no peace as long as the parties are afraid the "others" want to annihilate them.

What do you think?  Is safety a condition for peace?  How have you created unsafety for yourself?  For people you care about?  What can you do to begin to restore a sense of safety?