Aboard our vessel sailing with a torch of hope through the sea of darkness we gathered to renew our connection and affirm our purpose. The gathering of the builders of peace filled me, as these gatherings always do, with a sense of awe at what is possible and a humility in the presence of the great beings in whose midst my life's path has led me. We are of the lineage who will light the cauldron of hope on the distant shore of this sea of darkness. This lineage will someday include all of humanity, as those who have strayed so far choose to return to the family with understanding and wisdom. And we will pass the torch from generation to generation until that distant shore is reached.

The Second Annual Conference of the Massachusetts Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace was a pebble thrown into that loveless sea, its undeniable mass breaking the surface tension then penetrating the dark depths. The ripples created by that pebble will expend ever outward, contributing to future waves pushing our vessel onward toward that distant shore. The pebble will lie with all the rest at the bottom as a marker of this moment, remarkably ordinary, yet absolutely pivotal.

And so it was that 56 people gathered at the First Parish in Arlington, Massachusetts, a Unitarian Universalist church, to listen to the wisdom and intelligence of Dr. Dorothy Maver, Executive Director of The Peace Alliance, and to the kindness and knowledge of Patty Roeding, Director of Education of The Peace Alliance Foundation, and to the youthful enthusiasm and boundless energy of Aaron Voldman, Julia Simon-Mishal, and Justin Kadich of Brandeis University. Their message was simple. We can have a Department of Peace if we ask for it, and we ask everyone else to ask for it. We all want peace. No one wants suffering.

After listening to inspiring words we gathered in smaller groups to speak to each other, to fashion that inspiration into ideas for action. We committed to taking action to make the Department of Peace a reality. We committed to following up on those actions to keep our motivation high. And we committed ourselves to being peace and to continuing our journey across the lightless see to the True World.