Welcome to Peace Matters. My name is Dan Weaver. Some of you may know me from my old blog, Yesterday Once More, some of you may know me from my work for A Primitive Place & Country Journal magazine, and some of you may get to know me through my new blog. For those of you who knew me previously, you know that I seemed to disappear from the face of the earth about one year ago. To read more about that time in my life, you can click on My Story above. I have always enjoyed blogging and sharing my thoughts with people, and I have missed it, so I am very excited about my new blog. This blog will be quite different from Yesterday Once More, and I am sure you will notice very quickly that Peace Matters has a different look and feel than my previous blog.

I know that it is important to know a little bit more about the author of a blog, so this is me in a nutshell. I am an elementary special education teacher, a job that I have performed for 21 years. I am 42 years old and my partner, Jeff, and I have been together for almost 13 years. Jeff and I are huge dog lovers, and we have two of the most precious miniature schnauzers that God ever placed on this earth. They are truly a blessing from God. Their names are Peyton and Paycee. Peyton is a boy and Paycee is a girl. For those of you who knew me before, you will remember that we had a third miniature schnauzer named Parker. Sadly, we lost Parker in March 2015 at the age of 8. I will fill you in more on the story of Parker’s life in a later post. I am a huge collector of antiques, and it has always been my dream to live in a saltbox house. I am thrilled to say that our current house is for sale and when we sell our house, we will begin building a saltbox. I still have trouble believing that my life-long dream is finally coming true and I will most definitely keep you updated on the progress that we continue to make in this area of our lives.

I have always felt as if I am supposed to help others see the beauty in life. That is the thing about life that we often forget. It really is beautiful when we stop and look at it through the eyes of God. I began writing the posts for this blog in January 2015. The entries were more for me than anyone else. The writings helped me heal from a very traumatic time in my life, and it is a healing that continues with each passing day. While writing everyday, I realized that others may be able to benefit from my writings and this led me to starting this new blog. Peace is what was lacking from my life during the dark days that I faced, and peace is what allowed the brighter days to return. The peace I feel now is the peace that only God can provide, and He has done a great work in my life and has allowed me the chance to begin again. God can and will give all of us that chance, and I hope that you will realize that as you begin to read my posts.

Peace is not something that comes to us over night. It is a process for all of us and something that we have to strive for every single day that we are alive, but peace can be found by us all. I have not found complete peace, and I do not believe that any of us can find total peace in this life, but we can get much closer to it through God’s help. I do not have all the answers. I am flawed, and I have made many bad decisions in my life. It is not my place to force my beliefs on anyone. It is not my place to tell people that they are doing the wrong things with their lives. All I want to do is share with you what God has so graciously shared with me in hopes that all of our lives can be better. No one is perfect, and we all fall short every single day, but we have to get up and keep moving forward and we have to have the proper tools to make that possible.

With all that being said, I hope you will visit my new blog and that it will help you achieve a little more peace in your life and that it will bring you hope. There still is hope to be found, and there is enough peace for all of us. God’s peace is abundant and He wants to bestow it on each of us. I am still working on the writings that God would like for me to share with you, so I will not begin posting regularly until June 18, 2015. In the beginning, I will be posting once a week, but plan on increasing the frequency of posts as time goes by. In the meantime, I invite you to click on the links above and read my story and enjoy some of the quotes that God has given me along my journey. I will be adding quotes frequently, so be sure and check back as often as you can. If you like what you see, please feel free to share my blog information with those you know. The more people who hear the message of peace, the better off we will all be. For now, just keep moving forward and check back in with me from time to time. I look forward to getting to know all of you a little better and I am truly very excited about taking this journey with you. Never forget how important you are to God and to so many other people. Never stop trying to find the peace that God has in store for you. After all, PEACE MATTERS!

~Dan~