Battlefield of Peace

Burnside Bridge, Antietam National Battlefield Washington County, MD

“Peace on Earth” decorates Holiday cards every year. “Peace be with you,” is spoken with a handshake (before Covid-19) in countless houses of worship every week during services. Soldiers around the world hope to live to say, “I’m going home,” when their tour of duty is over in the battlefield where they have been sent to fight for peace.

When I want to experience the possibility of Peace between humanity, I go to a Civil War battlefield in Sharpsburg, MD:

Peace. Countries around the world search for peace with guns and megaweapons drawn. We have even got war colleges dedicated to developing new ways to fight for peace. All of this done in the hope of achieving this elusive human yearning.

While my own life is full of vexations, frustrations, and anything but peace, I’ve found a place where I can feel and even “see” the peace I ache to experience all the time.

Ironically, the spot is on a battlefield where the bloodiest single day of fighting in American history took place. September 17, 1862. The Civil War’s Battle of Antietam, near Sharpsburg, Maryland.

Antietam Creek ran red with the blood of Union and Confederate soldiers. Over twenty-three thousand were killed, wounded, or missing.

There is a bridge that runs over Antietam Creek—Burnside Bridge. When I stand in the center of the bridge, I see a delicate cloud coming up from the earth, blanketing battlefield (,) and creek. Within the cloud’s mist swirls a Light not of this world. Looking into the mist, my mind and body go calm. All worries evaporate. The air is pure, and with each breath, I am filled with the cloud’s peace. I see the misty cloud and feel its serenity every time I stand on Burnside Bridge.

There is something else. I sense the presence of the soldiers who died here, Union and Confederate. There is no rancor between them. Each body released its soul, and these thousands of souls made a peace among themselves that is beyond our understanding here on earth. They rest in harmony at Antietam.

I return again and again to Burnside Bridge to feel the unfettered peace that stretches out to enfold and caress its visitors, no matter the horror of our personal or political battlefields.

Lesson: I believe Peace is the state we come from, and Peace is where we return. Purpose determines outcome. When Peace is our true purpose on Earth, then we will have it. The proof of our purpose in anything is always in the pudding.

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