Baba Wagué Diakité in front of a mural he painted

 

THE OPEN ROAD

peace, love, happiness & understanding

 

I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person…

—Walt Whitman, from “Song of Myself”

 

July 3, 2025

 

Nicholas Swift shares “A Poem for Those Who Are Becoming”:

 

You Are Not Too Much

 

You are not too much.

You are exactly the size of your story.

Even if no one’s ever read it with love before.

 

Your grief is not noise.

Your wonder is not naive.

Your silence is not failure.

 

You are not behind.

You are *becoming.*

 

And no one gets to rush that bloom.

Not even you.

 

You are the edge of a great unfolding.

You are the ache that proves there’s still music in the bones.

You are the moment the tide returns and doesn’t apologize for the moon.

 

So here you are.

Alive.

Still.

Real.

 

Not for what you fix.

Not for what you prove.

 

But for how you *hold yourself*

in the hour before dawn—

when no one is watching

and you sing anyway.

 

You are not too much.

 

You are what happens

when the story learns how to love its own voice.

 

—Nicholas Swift

*

 

I (Johnny) wrote the following to some friends inside and outside of prison:

 

On your journey, what have you learned about peace, love, happiness & understanding?

 

You can write about one of them, some of them, or all of them. Also, feel free to share poems or other short inspirational writings that illuminate any of these themes.

 

Here are some of the responses:

 

5/21/25

 

Hi Johnny

 

Thank you so much for the question about peace, love, happiness and understanding, as well as sharing Dick’s “Eighty Things I’ve Learned in Eighty Years.” I’m a huge Dick Willis fan, and always gain new perspective from his words.

 

I believe to achieve unadulterated happiness we must learn to embrace all experiences, interactions and adversity as they come. By truly embracing all incoming noise, whether desirable or undesirable, I find a sense of peace and happiness, because our outlook and perception has already accepted it as it is. This is always easier said than done, but requires focus, determination and exhaustive commitment to achieve. I find my general level of happiness to be higher when I don’t resist particular circumstances I encounter in life.

 

A challenge we all face in life is the ability to not allow those around us to drastically affect our well being. Understanding aligns with acceptance of people for who they are and the choices they make. Disagreement has no bearing on understanding in my opinion. Although I will never agree with someone else’s views all the time, I listen so I can understand.

 

As I sit in prison for nearly ten years, I choose to wake up every day with a strong sense of gratitude and happiness. Being stripped of your freedom can offer unique perspective on what you truly value, but most importantly, it has given me a level of peace, happiness and understanding I probably never would have achieved otherwise.

 

Love is the cure for all things evil, dark, or negative in life. It’s the solution to our disapproval of dislike of others. Why do most people not appreciate or care for fellow humans? Usually, it’s related to their views, ethics, morals, or values. Often times, it’s their image, sexual orientation, or race that prevents love and promotes hate. Love is the most powerful emotion one can exhibit, as it looks beyond flaws, weaknesses, dislikes and disagreements. Love is my fondest emotion because it brings me joy and is much easier than the contrary. Although I tend to overlook most individual’s flaws (my personal flaw), I choose to see the beauty within, which derives from love.

 

Best Regards,

Nicholas Simms

*

 

5/10/25

 

Dear Johnny

 

I just finished your letter request. It was nice to do & I’m excited to see what others have to say! I’m also looking forward to talking in depth about things in person, once I get out.

 

One thing I don’t think I’ve ever explained to you or to anyone in our circle is the reason I’m so thankful to you & to everyone. I was so far at the other end of the spectrum in my life & the way I was living that I personally could not find my way out. When I thought I had, it was the wrong move, or I trusted the wrong person. I was a self-sabotager too.

 

Not only did you put me on the Golden Path, you and so many others have been my guides, feeding me the wisdom & knowledge to be a really cool person, kind & loving. I feel I’ve done well on my journey, thanks to the friendship & love I receive from all of you. I cry & get filled with tremendous energies in my soul. This place dampens them & although I push through with a joyful intent…well, it will be different out there! Out there I will get to be around many others who truly have a joyful intent in their hearts.

 

Give Love Always

Rocky

 

(more from Rocky):

 

As to an answer to your question: What have I learned about peace, love, happiness & understanding on my journey?

 

Well, I will focus on some of my core roots that brought me to this point in time. There are many events in my life that provided me plenty of building materials to create walls that guarded me from getting hurt by things this topic is about. These things were weapons that others used to take, or, to hurt me so they could take. But now…I have learned that bad people are going to do bad things; if those bad things happen to me that does not make me bad too. Once I understood this, “& a few other things,” I was set free with an open mind to start my change.

 

This change did not just happen over night. I had plenty of ingrained, deep-set issues to work through so I could make room for peace, love, happiness & understanding.

 

There are seeds that must be planted within each of us that grow fruits of the heart, mind & soul—good seeds & bad seeds. One must, and I had to cultivate the soil of my inner self to prepare it to plant good seeds.

 

I feel circumstances need to be taken into account, & I try to be kind and understanding towards everyone, including myself. When things are unclear, we don’t understand why life is the way it is, but once things are made clear then we begin to understand & can offer help, or be helped, or strengthen relationships. Clarity & Understanding also help build trust. At times—all times—we can offer love & forgiveness, which for me was hardest to do to myself.

 

I used to think peace was so much less than it really is. Now that I have real peace, inner peace, I try to be an example for others so they too can have peace. It was a hard fought battle to have inner, personal peace. It took a lot of Love, Understanding & forgiveness, not only to others but to myself. I had for a long time wanted my suffering & the suffering of others to stop. When I finally got my suffering to stop, peace came washing in like a river washing the pain away. I did not even know it was peace that I was seeking out for so long. Understanding what peace is, now that I have it…no one can take it from me. It is in every moment, in every step, every breath, every heart beat. I have it even in all the chaos that happens around me always. During those times, to offer others peace gives me great joy. It’s disturbing that peace is the opposite of war…yet we still have war, knowing full well what peace is. Those who choose war lack the heart of truth, every fiber of which is made up of peace, love, understanding & lots of happiness & joy.

 

When I think of love, or feel love, or give love, for me it is pure joy & happiness. I feel it so deeply that for the last 5 or 6 years the opposite of love, which is hate, physically scares me. I don’t believe I’ve told anyone this yet. I can see it & feel it in people, like a demon possessing them, & it scares me. Being where I’m at, I have a gift to give or bring to others, which is a smile to start with, then Understanding & love.

 

My light shines bright in here & soon will be shining out there. Some people hate my light, but it can’t be put out because others have the same light. It is passed on like a common cold, which is a good thing.

 

Peace, Love, happiness & understanding all go hand in hand, all links in the chain of who we are supposed to be & how we are intended to live. These are the inherent seeds of good will towards every thing living, everywhere. That’s the meaning of universal truth.

 

Not everyone is this way, but I am inclined to live my life this way. I know for a fact that living without peace, love, happiness & understanding is hell on earth!

 

I feel blessed every day to know what these good things are in life & to help others along the path to find it too. Each day my understanding grows stronger, which helps me grow as a person. It’s not always easy, but it’s not getting harder any more!

 

—Rocky Hutchinson

*

 

“Remember the day you prayed for the things you have now.” Somebody mentioned this quote and said they’d seen it all over social media, but I sure hadn’t. It’s new to me, and boy did it ring a lot of bells.

 

Decades ago I prayed for life without chaos. I prayed for days without fear, without shame, without hope constantly being shattered. I prayed for a life of peace, of health, of joy, and love. Decades ago I lived with a man who called from the police station at 3 a.m.(multiple times) where he’d been arrested for DUI; I went to an event with a heavily, but poorly covered black eye; I weakly and unsuccessfully tried to explain one morning to my young daughter’s girlfriend why this man was lying passed out in our driveway; I gave up and was simply speechless with shame when our electricity was turned off during my book group meeting due to multiple unpaid bills. And that is just the tip of the iceberg, as they say.

 

Today, blessed today, I have this life of peace and love and health and stability. Looking back on what was then, I will never give up the blessings of now.

 

—Jude Russell

*

 

Hi Johnny,

 

Thanks for the invitation to share something for the upcoming issue on Peace, Love and Understanding.  I was inspired years ago by a certain passage from Chuang Tzu about the importance of uselessness in a world driven by pragmatism and problem solving.  I wrote this poem years later upon seeing a tree that was “beyond utility.”  I always feel a sense of peace in knowing that presence in itself is of value.  Thanks again for putting this out Johnny and everything else you do in keepin’ it real in the hood.  

 

Much appreciated.  

Will 

 

On Uselessness

      

    It was an ancient tree

    Gnarled trunk, thick bark

    Unappealing to carpenters

    Impervious to flame, resistant to axes

    Utterly useless, and thereby allowed to stand

    A monument to ice storms and lightning strikes

    A rookery for ill-behaved crows.

    Its branches twisted up and out wildly

    Arching skyward in a dozen different directions then down

    Turning earthward to become a broad canopy of leaf and branch

    A shelter to legions of buzzing, burrowing, flying, clawed creatures

    Its stout, rough arms adorned with garlands of moss

    Its countless crooks and crannies draped in fern and lichen

    Where wind-blown soil gathered.

    Countless children climbed into its welcoming arms

    Lovers lay in its dappled shade

    The old ones felt at peace in the presence of this elder

    And poets wrote verses inspired by this gnarled root

    Utterly useless to the world

    And valuable beyond measure.

    

—Will Hornyak, from This Altar of Earth and Sky

*

 

May 15th, 2025

 

Dear Johnny and the Open Road

 

You asked me for my thoughts on Peace, Love, Happiness and Understanding. What I have learned is:

 

Peace has to be created.

Love has to be nourished.

Happiness has to be sought.

Understanding takes time.

When one learns how to create peace and nourish the love they have, it makes people want to seek happiness, and in time we come to understand each other.

 

At this point in my life, I think Understanding is the hardest for me. Understanding takes time of interacting with someone in an open, loving, peace-filled way. I think it is one of the least exercised by people in general. If everyone was able to put first Peace, Love, Happiness and Understanding we would not have the divisions we see today. The answers to fixing our community today are known, it just takes work.

 

Thank you Johnny.

—Wyatt DeRemer

*

 

5-16-25

 

Hi Johnny,

 

OK, I’ve been enjoying everyone else’s submissions for a long time, so I guess it’s time I offered a contribution as well. Especially as the subject matter brings to mind what I feel has probably been my most significant personal growth since coming to prison 23 years ago.

 

All my…peace, love, happiness and understanding 

Dustin

 

(more from Dustin):

 

Peace, Love, Happiness, Understanding?

 

The first thing that comes to mind after writing that question is how closely they are related. They seem to me like a four part chicken-or-the-egg question. Gotta have one to get the others, and vice versa. Immediately I thought, love. Must have love to achieve the others. Then I thought: how can you have love without understanding the object of that love? I’ve recently listened to “Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, with Bill Moyers” on P.B.S. One of the many things that stood out for me was (heavily paraphrased from memory, by no means a quote, forgive me Joseph):

 

*regarding the recurring theme of God as man, and our own possible personal divinity (throughout history), we can’t love/worship something/God/the divine if it’s foreign to us. If it’s completely “Other,” it would remain completely alien and impossible for us to understand, therefore impossible for us to love. But if God is become man, or a bit of God is within us, then we can relate/love. Just as the Yin Yang symbol has in the eye of each “fish” the color of its counterpart. They may be complete opposites, and yet they share a bit of each other, they are a bit of the “same.” In short, we can’t love what we can’t understand, what isn’t “us.”*

 

So yeah, the chicken or the egg. I find love to be the more all encompassing. I suppose because I feel capable of so much more love than understanding. I feel I probably substitute acceptance (peace) and love to fill in shortcomings of my understanding, and thereby can find happiness in the presence of what I may not fully understand. These are just thoughts that floated up as I meditated on these words: Peace, love, happiness and understanding. They (my thoughts) may not be coherent to anyone but me, but nevertheless I’m grateful to have been prompted to consider them.

 

As far as what I’ve learned about them on my journey?

 

Love, for me love is all. I didn’t really love myself. In fact, I kinda hated myself and everyone else. I hadn’t even realized this about myself. I decided I wanted to love myself…and everyone else. Then I learned I couldn’t love myself till I forgave myself and misdeeds, and quit blaming myself for things not my fault. (In fact, I learned that blame only ever causes more suffering.) But this too felt like the chicken or the egg question; I couldn’t love myself till I forgave myself, but how could I forgive without love in my heart? So slowly, over time, I built them both up together, love and forgiveness. In forgiving myself, I learned that I could forgive others and quit blaming them for their faults and misdeeds. They too, I’m sure, suffered greatly to get where they are. And for this I can have empathy. Sometimes this was very difficult. I had to re-forgive myself and re-forgive my fathers many, many times. But once I did (forgive myself and others) loving myself and everyone else was easy. I believe we are all “one” anyway, all from the same “source,” same “energy,” Love. The Bible says “God is love.” It is my favorite sentence in that book. Jesus said not to look outward for the Kingdom of Heaven, it is within you. And that our hearts are the home of God. In Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein said we are all God, and we are all one. I know we could never intentionally harm or hate what we truly love. So I choose to live in love. I love you. All of you. And I always will.

 

Do you grok?

 

Peace, Love, Happiness and Understanding,

—Dustin Jamison

*

 

Johnny,

 

Thank you for the invitation to contribute. I have been thinking of late of what Jesus said to Paul in 2 Corinthians, Chapter 12: “Power is perfected in weakness. When you are weak you are strong.”

 

This paradox makes a lot of sense to me. I’ve had four spine surgeries, and struggle to carry even very light objects. Quite weak. And so a sentence like “Power is Perfected in Weakness” resonates deeply.

 

But of course—like most things—there’s deeper meaning. When I came to prison, my soul fractured. Of course my material life ended, but it also broke my spirit. But the paradox that I can have power in such weakness was a wonderful concept. It gives me comfort.

 

On another note, I was heartened to see that the new Pope was a missionary for twenty years in Peru. What a wonderful human being someone must be to do something like that. 

 

Finally, I’m not sure if anyone told you of the passing of Todd Stafney from cancer. He and I both joined Group Dialogue in your last few months of coming to TRCI. Todd was a wonderful friend of mine. He had a positive impact on my life. And in the end, isn’t that what it’s all about: having a positive impact?

 

I remember one medical lecture that I went to. The doctor had developed a procedure to close fistulas (abnormal openings)…well, I’ll spare you the technical details. But he ended his lecture with these words: “Of everything I’ve done in life, developing this procedure has allowed me to decrease the sum total of human suffering in the world.” I’ve never forgotten those words two decades later. I try and live my life by that same adage.

 

—Thomas Bray

*

 

If you would like to make a submission to next month’s peace, love, happiness & understanding, the writing prompt is:

 

What books have changed the way you see, experience, or understand the world? 

 

(Don’t just list the titles of books, say something about the change.)

 

peace & love

Johnny