create peace - how? 

Mediation is one way to create peace in our relationships.

We have a conflict with someone.  We just can't make them see our point of view.  The battle begins.  If we're not feeling heard, we talk louder and louder until we believe that we can't help but be heard. 

Escalation leads us to doing things that increase in violence.  We start out with violent thoughts, move up to violent looks, progress to violent words, and louder and louder words, and then we start taking violent action -- if we feel we aren't getting our point across.

One way to stop the escalation, preferably at the earliest point possible, is mediation.

Mediation is sitting in the same space with the other person and talking about what brings us all together.

Restorative justice is another way to create peace in our relationships, extending into our greater community.  The principles of restorative justice come directly from indigenous groups in the Yukon, aboriginal groups in New Zealand, first peoples of Hawai'i, the First Nations of Canada, and Native American tribes.  Restorative justice practices serve to hold the individual offender accountable for his or her deeds, knowing that at the same time the offender needs to be restored to his or her own wholeness and the whole community -- while looking to make the community safer.  

There is a gift here, if we allow ourselves to be courageous.  The gift we receive from sharing in conflict with another is ... we see our very selves reflected back in the actions and the words and the thoughts of that other person.  They are our mirror -- either for what we are doing, or for what we are judging.  Persons who have spent time sitting in a circle sentencing gathering, or a family group conference atmosphere, understand deeply:  I see myself reflected in each person who sits in the circle with me -- in the offender, and the offended one, and everyone else who gathers here. 

Truly, we have no enemies.  Truly, there is no one to fight.  The person we're having so much trouble with is merely showing us where we are having trouble within our own lives. 

Conflict is a gift, a sacred opportunity to grow, within.