Making peace with ourselves means accessing inner peace that can be cultivated and extended to others. Authentic inner peace does not mean living in isolation, but discovering our own true nature and living in harmony with other people and the environment.
What sets monks apart from the rest of us is not an overbearing piety by a contemplative sense of fun. They know, as Trappist monk Matthew Kelty reminds us, that "you do not have to be holy to love God. You have only to be human. Nor do you have to be holy to see God in all things. You have only to play as a child with an unselfish heart."