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We also had another unusual coincidence during the last leg of our pilgrimage. During the entire walk, we always carried signs announcing what we were doing. In Israel, our signs said the word Peace in English, Arabic (Salam) and Hebrew (Shalom). The very day that we put on the signs, the letters started to fall off as we were walking. We tried to paste them on again, but it didn’t work. It was as if we weren’t meant to carry this sign to its final destination. It was a difficult thing to accept because for me especially, I felt this was where the sign was most needed. But upon later reflection, we realized that the outward message of peace had served its purpose. It had touched those who needed it. But now it was time for us to go inward, to focus on the inner journey of peace, to bring that energy into Jerusalem with us. We realized that the only way to bring peace into such a troubled area was not to shout it from the rooftops, but to live it in our everyday lives, in our actions towards the people who are like us and unlike us. The work of peace is an inner journey, people changing themselves and their attitudes and beliefs about their neighbors and the world they live in. They can then come to the world from this place of peace, acceptance, tolerance and openness. When they can be that peace that they wish to see, is when they can affect the most incredible change. When they can see the other point of view, when they can forgive themselves and their neighbors for their mutual acts of atrocity, when they can truly listen and have compassion for the other, that’s when true peace can be created.