Traveling the way of peace doesn't mean withdrawing from the world and all of the situations that steal our peace. The deepest levels of peace are attained only by engaging the reality that life serves up and doing the best we can to find and keep it.

Too often, though, we don't, instead content to "work on ourselves" and pretend the rest of the world has nothing to do with us, much less the peace we seek. Wrapped in a protective blanket of denial, isolation, and avoidance, we find an uneasy peace that is all-too-easily disturbed.

While such actions may allow us a relative calm amidst the outer storms, sooner or later the search for lasting peace will demand we deal with them.

For rarely do these things go away on their own. Instead, they keep growing in number and volume until they become like the squeaky wheel that will give us no peace until we fix it.

We all know what happens by then. The problems often escalate in scope and complexity, and demand much more of our time, effort and resources to deal with.

That's where our world is today.

Situations that have been cooking for years are bubbling up all over, now getting to a point where we're forced to do something about it. Their threats are so great that many of us are throwing open our windows and screaming, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more."

So how are we to find peace in times like these, when the world around us is falling apart and screaming for our attention to fix it before it's too late?

You're taking a lot of flack these days. For some in your ranks, it's probably well-deserved. For most, though, it's a bad rap.

Sure, you've got a lot of money. But that doesn't make you a bad person, much less insensitive to the plight of those who don't.

It just means you're blessed not to have to worry where your next buck is coming from. Or whether you're going to be able to keep your house or job, put food on the table, or somehow put the kids through school without saddling them with a crushing debt that could follow them for a lifetime.

Just imagine the possibility -- peace on Wall Street. And with it, too.

In case you haven't noticed, there's a battle brewing, and the pot is beginning to boil.

People are feeling enough is enough on a whole range of issues involving government, social responsibility, and the influence of money and power over the conduct and course of our common affairs.

Last week I spoke about reverse engineering your life to understand how you got where you are today. The same process applies to the state of our world.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that a wide disparity of circumstance exists among peoples around the world. The gulf between so-called rich and poor nations is enormous. And it's just as wide between the haves and have-nots within each of those societies.

Yet, disproportionate wealth does not always correlate to conflicts between those groups. At least, not directly.

Our focus today returns to creating a new world. The first step is to decide what we want it to look like.

Here are just a few of the good things I want it to bring. Peace. Prosperity. Health. Freedom. Opportunity. Good relations. Joy. Happiness. I suspect they're on your list, too.

The question is, how will we get there without taking along the aspects of our system that too often keep us from them?

I call them Control, Inc., an alliance of often well-intentioned forces that combine and conspire to keep us under their thumb.

We are now well-into the Time of Changes, and the dramas in our world (and lives) are deepening. Conflict is everywhere, and the struggle over who will set the course of our future is intense.

How can your expanding consciousness help you move through these challenges with more peace and ease while creating the future YOU want?

These are turbulent times. No one needs reminding that the extremes now seize the day, exacerbating their polarizing differences with every skirmish they fight.

However, despite the tug of such forces upon us, our peace -- and indeed our lives and the future of our world -- depend upon moving beyond them so we can all get where we want to go.

Perhaps it would be in order for us to take a moment to consider where that might be.

I want to apologize to all the Lightbearers around the world for my focus on U.S. politics in recent weeks. It is not my intention to be so provencial in my approach, but the health care fight offered me the chance to learn much more about myself and the energetic threads that make me who I am.

To summarize, I found within me support for some of both sides' arguments, as well as deep opposition to the methods and intentions of both that were so apparent in their battles.

Such inner conflicts exist within each of us. The outer mind dislikes ambiguity, so usually we try to emphasize one and squelch the others to give the appearance of a unified focus. But no matter which way we express ourselves, those conflicts keep eating us up inside -- just as I suspect the health care fight and others will continue to eat away at the American body politic for those who do not learn from them.

Congratulations to all those who supported the health care bill. Condolences to those who didn't. Why not call a truce and take a break before you resume your war?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you're fighting an illusory fight, the product of beliefs and practices lodged within the mass consciousness that keep us perpetuating a drama of conflict to ameliorate the harshness of a system where some win while others lose.

I hate to break it to you, but it's a fight we can never win. Because we're like dogs chasing our tails, continually trying to catch something that always remains just beyond reach.