A Quiet Place

In a world that sometimes makes no sense, and even seems to have gone mad, it’s so important to find that quiet place. A place of calmness, safety, and beauty. A place to restore our sanity.

This quiet place can exist in the mind. Close your eyes and take a mini break from work, and a hectic life. Just breathe, and maybe envision a peaceful scene where stress doesn’t live.

An actual tiny oasis can be created outdoors with a few potted plants and a small fountain. Water is always very soothing to the soul. Or maybe just sit outside and watch the show nature can provide.

The important thing is “Balance,” and finding a way back to it. Constant stress is a killer no matter what kind of stress it is. The body needs love and care to more than just survive. It needs to thrive.

In taking care of ourselves we can do a much better job taking care of our loved ones, and even showing kindness and care to those we don’t know. When we feel peace everyone around us feels it too.

“Each Life needs its own quiet place.” ~ Melody Beattie

Imperfect Beings

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” ~Rumi

As the sun sets on another day, we are aware that we are imperfect beings living in an imperfect world. Each day is a new chance, a new beginning, not to be perfect, but to be better than we were before.

We should all be gentle with ourselves. After all, we are on a journey to learn, and learning takes time and has many pitfalls along the way.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” ~ Lao Tzu

We humans may never get to enlightenment, but we can get closer every day.

Be the Peace in Your World

With so much aggression and turmoil in this world, try and practice peace everyday in your world.  If you can’t smooth that frown away and replace it with a smile, at least try and keep your anger down the best you can. Hard to do when you are not having a good day and feeling upset, but so important.

We can’t control what happens in the world, but we can control how it affects us, and not be adding more hostility loose in this world. Also, if we get depressed or angry we have allowed that turmoil and the aggression going on to enter what should be our peaceful kingdom. Pema Chodron says we should ask ourselves, “Am I going to practice peace, or am I going to war?”  If we don’t practice that peace we will be going to war with someone, maybe even ourselves.

Try always to stay present. Look for the beauty and goodness in nature, in things, and the people all around. We don’t have to agree on everything, but we should be accepting of our differences. Diversity is a good thing, and should not be something to fear. We add our aggression into the overflowing angry world by not being peaceful in ours. We all control what we put out. 

Richard Carlson wrote a book called, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff … and It’s All Small Stuff. I have found this to be so true. In the past, most of the things I got angry about were just silly stuff that if given a few hours or a day I would have figured it out instead of acting out.

Remember, each peaceful thought that all of us can have will bring balance to our currently unbalanced world.  

It’s Time

Yes, it’s time for Peace.

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know Peace.” ~ Jimi Hendrix

But peace won’t come until real Change starts to happen, and we can actually feel and see it taking shape.

“You have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
~ Harriet Tubman

Something will still be missing for peace to come and that is Healing.

“There is force in the universe, which if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

This force is the Healing we and our planet so need before peace will come.

Change, Healing, Peace. This will be hard for some because it’s a different way of thinking and living.

Start by emptying all the misinformation stuck in the brain that has been passed on from generation to generation. Look at life with a new perspective. Practice forgiveness, acceptance and humility. Open the door and let love in to banish hate for good. And get rid of fear. Many times when we don’t understand something or someone we fear it and pass on negative judgments.

Just like the picture of the flowering strawberries above, we too are ready for renewal that will lead us to Peace. So let’s begin.

Keep Evil at Bay

“All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.” ~ Edmund Burke

Evil lurks deep into the crevices of all societies. The world has always had people who do evil. These people are very clever in recruiting others to join their missions and cults. Evil can wear many faces and appear innocent at first. Don’t allow yourself to get mislead and end up in a hideous plan. Check your thinking.

Don’t fear those that seem different, or fear what you don’t understand. Educate yourself, and become enlightened. Don’t get caught up blaming and hating others for how your life has turned out. Do something positive with your life. Get out of your head, and learn to think outside the box.

Draw on the love that is deep inside. It’s there; we all have it. Listen to your Spirit. Accept all beings. All of us have a right to be.

“No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.”

~ Elie Wiesel

It is vitally important that we all check our thinking. Collective negative thinking can make for a dangerous world. We don’t want to repeat our past mistakes, or start up new ones.

“With our thoughts we make the world.” ~ Buddha

The world we live in can become so much more and we have the power to make it so. All it takes is kindness and love.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” ~ Anne Frank

Stay positive. Choose love over hate. Be there for your family, friends and neighbors. Maybe, just maybe, if we all do this we can protect our beautiful blue planet and keep evil at bay.

“Know mankind well, don’t degrade every man as evil, and don’t exalt every man thinking he is good. He who cannot discover himself cannot discover the world.” ~ Rumi

Use your power.

Silent

LISTEN MORE, SPEAK LESS, AND A WHOLE NEW WORLD WILL OPEN UP FOR YOU.

“The word listen contains the same letters as the word silent.” ~ Author Unknown

 

 

Go the Way of Gentleness

In this crazy world we’re living in, sometimes we see and hear disturbing things on the news and all around us. It’s enough to make us lose ourselves and become out of sorts. At times, we feel so irritated that we lash out at one another and become rude or even mean. That’s not us, and that’s not the way to live.

We need to bring back our gentler side when we feel this way. The soft side that makes us warm caring humans. Yes, it’s easy to become tough and non caring when the world is cruel, and the urge to put on the boxing gloves is very tempting, but fight that force.

Let’s try creating a world around us of gentleness, and just maybe the outer world will eventually act in kind.

“Where anger is a bursting flame, gentleness is a gentle rain.” ~ Fr. John Hardon

 

We Can

We can be the change that needs to be.

We can be the beauty we long to see.

We can be the love that’s waiting to be freed.

But nothing will ever change unless we wake up, raise our voices, and demand the time is now!

Don’t go home and close the door behind you thinking you’re closing the world away because you’re not. Nothing gets better on its own. We are all connected, and when one part is sick we are all sick.

We can all do our part to make the world we live in a better place. Change can happen by how we vote, treat each other, and how we choose to live our lives. The important thing is to be connected and never give up the fight for change that needs to be.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world:  Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead

 

Wildness

“In wildness is the preservation of the world.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

Let’s keep the wildness wild, and maybe just have a little saneness in the world.

The World’s Beauty is Enough

“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.” ~ Toni Morrison

When I’m sitting on my deck and looking out at the simplicity and beauty of nature the problems and ugliness of the world we live in disappears. All I see is beauty, and I wonder, with this beauty how can the world be so cruel?

Maybe in life we all need to stop what we’re doing and really go outside and witness the beauty that’s before us. When was the last time you went out in the darkness and looked up at the stars and talked to the moon? How about a sunrise or sunset?

The world we live in is filled with so much beauty but we’re sometimes too busy to notice. We hear all the bad stuff that’s happening to our world, and we fear this is a bad place to be. But despite what man continues to do, the beauty is always present.

When you find yourself surrounded by the beauty of nature that is the world you live in, it takes your breath away. Standing there in the stillness you know that you can never duplicate, or truly explain what you are feeling. You have now become one with the universe.