This week marked the 14th anniversary of 9-11, and I know for many if not most of us, this was a solemn, difficult day of remembering the victims and all those who loved and honored them.

Most of you know my husband is a Unitarian-Universalist minister. Several years ago when he was the senior minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA. he made a series of “two-minute timeouts” to put on the church website to welcome visitors. We thought today we would share this one. Even if the purpose here at Sunday Inspiration is different, this message seems especially timely because the scene in the background is just over the mountains from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia’s Piedmont where our oldest son and family lives. We just spent two days there on our way home to Florida, and it always restores us to look out at this view.

Finding peace is universally desired and universally elusive, isn’t it? I suspect if we sat looking over these mountains and had a heart-to-heart conversation about what we value and long for most, we would agree that finding peace is foremost. We might not agree on how to achieve it, but at the very least we would be starting in the same place, a deep need for a world where everyone is safe from harm.

My thanks to Michael McGee, now the minister emeritus of the Arlington UU Church, for sharing this today.