Peace is not passive. It is intentional, brave, and deeply relational
Early in the year, many of us are easing back into routines — setting goals, making plans, finding our pace again. And yet the most essential commitment rarely makes the list: peace.
In Brendon Bain’s reflection, there’s a disarming honesty. He admits peace is rarely on his wish list — though it should be. It’s seldom in his vocabulary or his stories — though it should be. He recognises that avoiding conflict isn’t the same as practising peace, and that peace is not something he has pursued or examined beyond his own experience. And still: he knows it should be.
His words echo a truth Archbishop Desmond Tutu lived daily: peace is not a mood, a slogan, or the absence of tension. Peace is a discipline. It is the daily choice to listen, to repair, to tell the truth with love, and to keep relationship at the centre — even when it costs us comfort.
When we don’t choose peace intentionally, it quietly slips out of our conversations, our decisions, and our communities.
At the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation, we receive Brendon’s reflection as both a mirror and an invitation. Peace must be spoken about, practised, and protected. It must become part of our language, our habits, and our hopes — not only for ourselves, but for one another.
As this new year begins, it is not too late to pause, pay attention, and begin again.
May we cultivate peace — not as an ideal, but as something lived.
#PeaceInPractice #TutuLegacy #EverydayPeace #ReflectiveLeadership #HopeInAction