This is a poem a friend gave me in my freshman year of college back in 2003. It was a co-worker, at a Senate Internship Program, where I interned with Senator Ellen Anderson at the State Capitol in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I told her about a Muslim student human rights organization I was putting together at that time, and my love for poetry. She was very encouraging and she shared this poem with me in a nicely printed paper and cardboard frame. Her husband wrote this poem. We have lost touch, but this poem has been with me, plastered on the wall of every home I have lived in since, and her intentions of why she gave me this poem, after what I shared with her, has always stayed with me all these years… I will always remain grateful.
House of Peace
This is a house of peace,
we speak in peaceful voices,
we speak of peaceful things,
we speak in ways which show respect.
Peace grows from these actions.
It surrounds us and fills our house.
The peace in this house touches the world.
This is a House of Love.
Love is the heart of each thought;
Love is at the heart of each word;
Love is at the heart of each action.
It surrounds us and fills our house with joy.
The love in this house touches the world.
This is a House of Charity.
Charity to all is the outward sign of our lives of peace and love.
Our charity touches all we know,
and through those touches, all the world.
This, then, is our calling and our joyful responsibility:
To think of peace, to live in love, and to act in charity.
If you live here this is your charge.
If you visit here this is our gift to you.
David R. Van Wyk – March 14th, 2003
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