Peace at What Cost?
written by: Haroon Rashid
It is the peace we all want.
Yet look around
what is happening to our world?
None of us
will carry possessions
to the graveyard.
Then why so much greed?
Why do so many children bleed?
We are all red
veins filled with the same blood.
Yet we all want blue
the calm, the sky, the sea, the dream.
When will we understand?
When will we take a stand?
Is peace really so costly?
What price are we paying
and for what kind of peace?
We talk of freedom,
but enslave our hearts in silence.
We speak of love,
but build walls with our hands.
Why do we keep choosing
to blind ourselves with fear
when we could choose sight,
choose unity,
choose hope?
This world has room for all.
It is our hearts that build walls.
It is our greed that creates hunger.
It is our silence that turns the wheel of war.
Can we break the chains we’ve bound ourselves in?
Can we stand tall together
not as fragments of the same people,
but as one beating heart?
Peace is not a distant dream.
It is a choice we make every moment,
every action, every word.
What will it take
for us to choose it?
How long will we wait
for the winds of change to carry us?
Will we only listen when the earth groans,
when the skies are filled with ashes,
when the cries are too loud to ignore?
The change is not in the air.
It is in our hands,
in the way we treat the earth,
in the love we offer each other,
in the strength of our collective voice.
It is not time that will heal us
it is our willingness to heal together.
The future is not some distant place,
it is the very steps we take right now.
It is the breath we share,
the hand we extend.
And so,
we must ask again
is peace really so costly?
At what cost will we choose peace?
How many times must we fall
before we learn to rise together?
How many hearts must break
before we understand that love is the only way forward?
It is not the weight of our burdens
that will crush us
it is the absence of compassion,
the refusal to stand for something greater than ourselves.
We cannot wait for peace to come to us.
We must build it,
piece by piece,
with our actions,
with our words,
with the love we give and receive.
The time is now,
not tomorrow,
not someday
it is today.
Right here, right now,
we must choose peace.
We must choose it
with everything we have.
And yet,
we are still standing on the edge of a choice.
Will we walk toward understanding,
or will we retreat into the shadows of fear?
Will we lift each other up,
or will we watch as the weight of the world presses us down?
The answer lies not in the voices of the few,
but in the quiet resolve of the many
who choose every day
to live for something greater,
something pure,
something lasting.
It’s in the hand extended to the stranger,
the forgiveness given to the enemy,
the truth spoken in the face of lies.
It is in the courage to act,
the humility to listen,
and the strength to love
when all seems lost.
Peace is not just a word,
it is a way of living,
a way of being.
It is the bridge between our hearts,
the unspoken promise that we are one
no matter how far we have wandered,
no matter how deep the wounds.
At what cost?
At no cost greater than the cost of silence,
of hatred, of division.
The time for peace is now.
We must choose it,
and we must choose it together.
We can no longer be bystanders
to the suffering we see.
The cry for peace
calls out from every corner,
from every heart that aches
for a world free of pain.
If we are to heal,
we must heal as one.
If we are to rise,
we must rise together.
The bonds that unite us
are stronger than the forces that divide us.
If we stand in the light of our shared humanity,
there is no darkness we cannot overcome.
So, let us ask again
what is the true cost of peace?
It is not in gold,
nor in silence,
nor in indifference.
It is found in the courage to act,
to speak,
to love,
to forgive.
To rise.
Peace is not a place
it is the journey we take together.
It is the choice we make
to see each other,
to hear each other,
to feel each other’s pain
and celebrate each other’s joy.
The question remains:
At what cost do we choose peace?
For the price is high
but it is one worth paying.
If we want peace,
we must first give it.
We must live it.
And we must do it together.
It is this peace we all want,
yet we still stand divided,
across borders, across beliefs,
across the very essence of our shared humanity.
We fight over resources,
we fight over ideologies,
we fight over differences,
while the world burns with the hunger for love.
At what cost will we choose peace?
Is it in the silence of the oppressed,
in the suffering of the innocent,
in the tearing of families apart?
Or is it in the strength of our unity
our collective will to change,
to heal, to forgive?
The walls we build between us
are not just physical,
but mental,
spiritual,
emotional.
We keep dividing the world into “us” and “them,”
and in doing so,
we forget that we are all “we.”
Why do we continue to ignore the truth,
the simple truth,
that we are all connected?
That the pain of one is the pain of all?
That the joy of one is the joy of all?
When will we see that peace is not a destination,
but a journey we must take together?
When will we understand that to truly have peace,
we must first make peace within ourselves
in our hearts, in our minds, in our souls?
Peace is not just the absence of war.
It is the presence of understanding,
the presence of love,
the presence of compassion.
It is the ability to look past differences,
to see the humanity in another,
to reach across the divide and say,
“I see you. I hear you. I care for you.”
The cost of peace is not measured in money,
not in weapons,
not in power.
It is measured in the courage to lay down our pride,
to surrender our hatred,
to walk the path of forgiveness.
How long will we wait for peace to be handed to us?
It will not come in a package,
not in a treaty,
not in a law.
It will come when we choose it,
when we make it,
when we live it.
Peace begins in the smallest of actions
a kind word to a stranger,
a helping hand to the fallen,
a listening ear to the hurting.
It begins in our homes,
in our communities,
in our countries.
It begins with us.
And so, the question remains
at what cost do we want peace?
At what cost do we want the future we dream of?
It is not a cost of wealth,
nor of convenience.
It is the cost of courage,
of vulnerability,
of standing up for what is right,
of walking away from what is easy and comfortable,
and stepping into the unknown with faith.
We cannot keep waiting for someone else to change.
The time to act is now.
The time to build peace is now.
The time to choose love over hate,
understanding over judgment,
healing over destruction
it is now.
The cost is high, yes.
But the cost of not choosing peace
is far greater.
It is the cost of our future,
of the future of our children,
of the very future of humanity.
So let us ask ourselves
are we willing to pay that price?
Are we willing to build a world where peace is not a dream,
but a reality?
A world where every person,
no matter their race,
their religion,
their culture,
is treated with dignity and respect?
The answer lies not in the hands of the powerful,
but in the hearts of the people.
The power to change the world is not with politicians,
not with armies,
not with wealth.
It is with us
the everyday people,
the ones who choose to love,
to forgive,
to heal.
It is with us,
in the quiet moments,
when we choose peace over conflict,
when we choose understanding over fear,
when we choose unity over division.
We can no longer afford to wait for peace to come to us.
We must create it,
live it,
embody it.
At what cost?
At the cost of everything we are willing to leave behind.
At the cost of everything that divides us.
At the cost of everything that tells us we are not enough,
that tells us we are separate.
Peace is not the end of a battle,
but the beginning of a new way of living.
A way of love,
a way of healing,
a way of unity.
We must choose it.
We must build it.
And we must do it now.
Together.
- Peace at What Cost? - May 27, 2025
- Time and Us - January 5, 2024
- Spiritual Love - September 30, 2021
