The Servite Center for Life (SCL) is a location. It is a handful of Sisters and you. It has a mission. SCL is about advancing peace.

We can go about our daily lives with little awareness of so many activities going on around us in the world. Often these activities are like concentric circles of energy that move on and around the earth. On the outer ring of awareness is the global society, the world of economics, politics, the stock market, the realm of millionaires and billionaires. In smaller and still smaller circles we find technologies and sciences, cities, towns and neighborhoods, and even smaller groups within groups. Each circle and its activities affect the next. Identifying and moving with our own particular association within these circles can produce positive results.

The Servite Center for Life is one of these small locations and groups that make a difference in the circles of awareness. For years the Sisters have intentionally committed themselves to lives of simple communal living, shared resources, and prayer. Each has had multiple years of activity while teaching, nursing and/or administration, out and about the United States. Their combined experiences still bubble with love and concern for people and the future of our planet. From their remote location they have identified their abilities to observe, listen, and respond with compassion to the issues that confront their neighbors, towns, cities -- and back out into the outer ring again.

Peace resides in and moves outward from SCL. I wrote, in a previous article, of SCL's Tuesday prayer ritual around the "Peace Pole" which is planted on the front lawn for all to observe. It is a strong reminder of our connectedness to the total planet beyond our view.

Today I would like to remind each of us that, from exactly where we are located, we can join this small group who live at 1000 W. College Avenue, Ladysmith, Wisconsin, and help realize their desire to advance peace. Since you are reading this message, you are becoming aware and you are needed. "Little drops of water, little grains of sand make the mighty ocean and the beautiful land," (child's nursery song recorded by Frank Luther) is a fine metaphor for the "little" ways each of us can make a difference.

The process: Wherever we are, to the best of our ability, we try to be rightly informed. Question, listen, watch, and pray. Those four things are actions that we all can do. One's actions may or may not produce an expected result. Some outcomes are planned, some hoped for, some are subliminal, and some are miraculous. The path that one takes to prayer and action will depend on the awareness revealed. The path may lead to a trusted friend or to a world issue. Visit the rest of SCL's web site, and let us hear from you about your paths of awareness to advance peace.

"Advancing Peace" by Anita Swansen, OSM