In the aftermath of President Obama’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, one might ask, “How can I help build upon the ideals President Obama articulated so well?”

I believe one simple way anyone and everyone can help is through prayer.

Prayer to me is sowing seed-intentions into the universe. The universe is like the Earth; it takes what we sow and multiplies it until it grows into realization and actualization, just like the seed that is planted in the soil is not dead, but alive, full of potential to grow into a reality beyond our wildest dreams.

If one looks at a seed, it appears small, dead and of little consequence. Take it apart, and the appearance seems confirmed.

However, the miracle of the seed is that in it is the potential for life that will continue to grow and multiply over time.

Certainly if a seed possesses the power to do these things, our seed-thoughts or prayers can likewise achieve these and even greater things, since prayers are seeds not just for food or sheltering plants, but the hopes, dreams and aspirations of humanity.

All we need to do is to believe in our common, universal ability to plant such seed-thoughts through prayer and expect them to grow and produce an abundant harvest over time, just as what we plant in the soil does.

If we ever needed prayer warriors for peace, it is now. If we ever needed prayer warriors to pray for peace and harmony among the nations, all working toward common goals of habitat restoration and rehabilitation, defense and preservation of human rights, it is now.

Let us take the seeds of peace President Obama sowed in his speech to the world and cultivate them in our thought-gardens, and in our daily lives.  From such thoughts and intentions good actions will inevitably grow.

Let us include them in our hopes and dreams and aspirations regarding the kind of world we would like for our children and our children’s children to grow up in – one where they can grow together sharing the Earth’s resources for the common good, in mutual dignity and self-respect; where everyone can contribute their gifts and talents to enrich life for the rest of the world, and be compensated fairly for doing so, so that no one will be left behind, deprived of their rights or flattened by the steamroller of progress that tends to favor the few at the expense of the many.

Let us keep in mind, and hold it as part of our core dream and belief system, that all people are endowed by their creator with an equal and unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

As long as we hold these ideals close to our hearts and do not abandon them for the false lure of cultural, racial or ethnic exclusivity or unbridled materialism, the dreams we dream and our forefathers dreamed will never die, but eventually grow to fruition, and come to pass.

The future is up to us and what we decide to do now. If we abandon the dream, it will die, like an untended seed. If we continue to nurture the seeds of peace and freedom in our hearts, collectively, we will eventually create the world we dream of, where the Earth will provide all the things we need to live in peace and harmony with our neighbors, each cultivating and enjoying the fruits of his and her labors, to the benefit of the many rather than the benefit of the few.

Let us discard such exclusivity, for it is like a blight upon the nations that corrupts the very essence of what was intended when we were created.

Let us abandon the ethic of survival of the fittest and embrace the ethic of love that shares the Earth’s resources with all, and build a world community where all can live in peace.

The power of love is greater and more meaningful that the power of possession and destruction. It is up to everyone to embrace this Godly dream of cooperation and build upon it for the benefit of all.

n     Fred Pulver

12-13-09