Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog you know that I alwaystalk about my relationship with my sister as being tumultuous and sometimesviolent.  ‘twas true for sure during ourteenage years but we’re well beyond that and we get along quite sisterlynowadays.  We buried the hatchet, as itwere, decades ago. No, not in one another’s heads.  Gruesome!

Bury the hatchet  . . . to forget about arguments anddisagreements with someone and to become friends with them again  . . . is literally what it says . . . to putyour weapons in the ground and cover them with soil.  The phrase originates as a Native Americantradition.  Tomahawks, knives and bows wereceremoniously buried by tribes when they came to a peace agreement to symbolizethe end of war.

According to tradition,  the Iroquois leaders Deganawidah and Hiawathaconvinced the Five Nations (the Mohawk, Oneida,Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca) to stop fighting amongst themselves and form aconfederacy. To celebrate the new peace, the Iroquois buried their weaponsunder the roots of a white pine. An underground river then miraculously washedthe weapons away so the tribes could never use them against each other again. 

A valuable moral to be learned from a brave and noble people.

Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.

Albert Einstein