Like most young girls, I loved watching beauty pageants, especially when they got down to the last few contestants and the big question at the end. It seemed that no matter what the question, world peace was the right answer. I truly believed those dazzling women would someday make the world a better place!

I was only three years old when the Vietnam War started in 1964. It wasnt until 1969 that I started to understand what was going on. At eight years old, I willingly did my share for the peace movement. I drew peace symbols all over my homemade schoolbook covers right alongside my flower power stickers. I didnt know anyone in the war, but I did catch enough to know that people were dying and many were missing in action. I never knew how my parents felt about the warthey never talked about it in front of usbut when my sister and I asked for POW/MIA bracelets, they didnt hesitate to buy them for us. I proudly put my shiny metal bracelet on every morning and carefully placed it upon my dresser each night. In the evenings, Id say a prayer for my guy, and during the day, my girlfriends and I would search through the list of found POW and MIAs in the newspaper. We used to chat about our guys as if they were family.

At that time, I had no comprehension of the political backdrop for the war or who was winning, nor did I care. The only thing that mattered to me was the safe return of my guy and all the guys over there, wherever there might be. Children have a natural ability to cut through the illusion created by adult egos and see what really matters in the purest sense. I knew that people were being killed and that homes, villages and the earth were being destroyed. I knew that was wrong. As human beings, we all come from the same source of pure love, and thats what connects us in spirit. By killing another, we kill a part of ourselvesthe human race.

After the Vietnam War was over, I stopped wearing my bracelet. It had become dented and scratched over the yearsthe name barely visible. I kept it in a box on top of my dresser until I left home at twenty-three years old, eleven years after the war had ended. I never knew if my guy ever came homealive or dead.

More recently, in the documentary movie Fahrenheit 9/11, I was reminded again how war not only destroys physical people and things, but also desecrates the human spirit. I was reminded how senseless and wrong it is. I was reminded how nobody ever wins. I watched an American mother in agonizing grief over the son she lost, and on the other side of the world, an Iraqi woman was screaming and crying in the name of Allah after her home was bombed. How could any human ever justify this?

When asked, most of usespecially womenwould say that we want world peace, but peace doesnt start out there in the world somewhere with a country or a political leader. It begins inside each and every individual person. A good place to start is the Goddess within you, making sure that you are at peace inside first. That means your body, your spirit and your life. Then and only then, can you bring peace to othersfrom family to friends to strangers to community to country, and finally to the world.

While I dont watch beauty pageants anymore, I do give those Goddess contestants credit for knowing that Peace is the only right answer.

5 Ways to Make Peace, Not War:

Always respect others beliefs, opinions and actions, especially when different from your own.

Hold the image of world peace in your heart and mind, feeling it every day.

Detach yourself from the mob mentality, created by the media to stir your emotions into seeing only one point of view.

Choose the path of least resistancewalk away from arguments, fights, negative people, explosive situations.

Meditate or pray daily to create inner peace.