The Stillness of Summer: Finding Peace Where You Are

 Peace, Right Here, Right Now

The tips of the trees outside my window dance gently in the morning breeze. The sounds of traffic in the distance hum.  If I close my eyes I almost believe that humming is the sound of waves. This is a beautiful summer morning and I am at peace, right here, right now.

 Is everything perfect in my life? No, certainly not. Anxieties creep up: family members with serious health problems, money and relationship challenges.  All over the world people are set in furious conflict with other and don’t have enough for survival itself. How dare I be at peace right now?

Breathing in the Stillness and the Beauty

And yet, the world is so beautiful.  I just returned from a weekend with old friends from The Compassionate Listening Project at a camp in the foothills of the  North Cascades. While there I joined in circle dances, sang, talked with people I hadn’t seen in some time, and sat in silence listening to the wind blowing in over the mountain ridge and through the evergreens. In that stillness I experienced something I had never felt before. I felt my heart open to a new sweetness, a tenderness of love that took my breath away. I loved these people who are committed to creating peace through deep listening. To be in that beautiful place with these particular people was heaven on earth to me.

For Each Person A Different Definition of Peace

If I were to ask each person for their definition of peace, the answers would vary widely.  For one person it might be flying a plane high above the earth. For my brother it would be climbing mountains, risking his life foothold by foothold but feeling the exhilaration of life in every step. For someone else it might be cooking an extraordinary meal for her family. And for another it might be a simple walk in the park. 

What Kind of World Do We Want to Live In?

We can get so wrapped up in the minutiae of our lives, all the things we have to do, the bills we have to pay, fighting traffic, worrying about the price of gas that it’s easy to fall into carping, complaining and blaming. All those people out there who aren’t doing things the way they should be doing them, who aren’t doing things the right way-don’t they know better??  What makes them feel alive? What kind of world do they want to live in?

Here is a poem by DH Lawrence that says it all:

PAX

All that matters is to be at one with the living God                                                                        

To be a creature in the house of the God of Life.

Like a cat asleep on a chair

At peace, in peace

And at one with the master of the house, with the mistress,

At home, at home in the house of the living,

Sleeping on the hearth, yawning before the fire.

Sleeping on the hearth of the living world

Yawning at home before the fire of life

Feeling the presence of the living God

Like a deep reassurance

A deep calm in the heart

A presence

As of the master sitting at the board

In his own and greater being,

In the house of Life.

                                                                                    D. H. Lawrence

Questions:

1.  Where do you find peace? What makes you feel fully alive?