This Week’s Quotation:
When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others. This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love. The way of peace is the way of love. Love is the greatest power on earth. It conquers all things.
~ Peace Pilgrim, mystic, spiritual teacher, and peace activist
Pilgrimage for Peace
Soul Care Facilitator
I was introduced to Peace Pilgrim in 1993 while I was perusing titles at a bookstore. Her book, Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words, literally fell off a shelf and into my hands. Her example has provided me inspiration for living an authentic spiritual life ever since. I’ve heard her aptly referred to as a 20th century St. Francis of Assisi.
Born in 1908, Mildred Norman became disillusioned in her thirties with the materialistic focus of life. She legally changed her name to Peace Pilgrim and gave away her wealth and possessions. Then in 1953, her pilgrimage for peace began—penniless, walking on faith alone, carrying only a toothbrush, comb, and pencil. She found the Kingdom within and committed to bringing it to everyone she met as she made seven pilgrimages on foot across the United States, Canada, and parts of Mexico.
Peace Pilgrim lived as if she were the answer to someone’s prayer, cultivating the holy flow in her human experience, allowing it to flow through her to bless others. She was “all in” on her pilgrimage for 28 years until an accident took her life a few weeks before her 73rd birthday. Possessed by Love, she lived the truth that Love is always the answer.
While the specifics of our personal vision and mission may be entirely different, we all have the ability to follow Peace’s example and function like the sun, beaming love upon everyone and everything we engage without asking for or expecting anything in return. Peace continues to inspire me to engage the Divine Wow in my own unique way. I hope she has inspired you too. Imagine what sort of sacred uproar we might create if we all gave our best to follow Peace’s example!
About Open Windows
We, the authors of this blog, dedicate it to the transparent exploration of the world’s sacred scripture and enlightened spiritual thought. We believe that the original inspiration of all faiths comes from a common source, named and revered in a myriad of ways. With that understanding, the innumerable symbols, beliefs, and practices of faith cease to divide. They become open windows to a common reality that inspires and unifies us. We find deeper insight and nourishment in our own faith and from the expression of faith from others.
We hope these weekly quotations and meditations speak to your heart and soul.
5 Responses
Thanks, David and Teri, I had never heard of Peace Pilgrim. It is reassuring when reading these blogs to discover how many facets of the shining jewel exist. Long may Peace’s influence ripple forth and bless many. Love, Tom C.
Her book and her spirit have always been such an inspiration and I hope deep inner role model for me – she was (and in memory is) – the most Heart Coherent Being I have ever known.
Touches my heart. Yes, what if we all… What if I?
Peace Pilgrim sounds like such a Beautiful Soul! Thank You for sharing, can’t wait to read her book!🙏❤️
I actually had the opportunity to meet Peace Pilgrim in person. She was walking across the United States and came through Colorado Springs where I was living at the time. Through a friend named George Emery who knew Peace, she agreed to speak at a meeting with him at my house. She was certainly a very gracious and humble woman who measured up to every wonderful thing I had heard about her.