what is peace?

Spiritual resource to share: equanimity, serenity

It has been quite a peaceful day: Prayer, new inspiration mixed with cool breezes throughout the day and a family meal with two new people at our table for dinner. Now that the meal is over, the table cleared and everyone into their evening, I have some time to myself and to reflect 'What exactly is peace?' and wanted to share some thoughts with you.

More than the absence of violence – I think that peace is the atmosphere where healing happens, creativity is unleashed and laughter is second nature.

The Hebrew word for peace, "shalom," means "whole" and points to contentedness, gratitude and unselfishness within oneself and between people.

So why is this important? It's because the inner thought is expressed in the outer action.

I ask myself:

How is peace a part of my life?
I can control my anger.
I can refuse to participate in violence, by increasing my confidence in the power of good - the omnipotence of Truth. Truth is natural, primitive.

Is my family practicing peace?
Are my sons being taught how to respond, and not to react to anger?
Are we ( my husband and I ) modeling good conflict resolution, respect for one another and the ability to listen – truly listen – with our hearts?

How am I practicing peace?
Am I contributing to peace in my community?
Am I supporting those activites that channel energies into productive and helpful channels?
Am I investing in my community by acknowledging what is good and multiplying that good?
Am I being a productive citizen? Caring for the earth, for my neighbors
Am I publishing peace – making peaceful and grateful gestures to the grocery clerk, the telemarketer? Spending time to magnify peace in all areas of my life?

MBEddy's comments have a special resonance when it comes to disciplining one's life with peace:

We should remember that the world is wide; that there are a thousand million different human wills, opinions, ambitions, tastes, and loves; that each person has a different history, constitution, culture, character, from all the rest; that human life is the work, the play, the ceaseless action and reaction upon each other of these different atoms.

Then, we should go forth into life with the smallest expectations, but with the largest patience; with a keen relish for and appreciation of everything beautiful, great, and good, but with a temper so genial that the friction of the world shall not wear upon our sensibilities; with an equanimity so settled that no passing breath nor accidental disturbance shall agitate or ruffle it; with a charity broad enough to cover the whole world's evil, and sweet enough to neutralize what is bitter in it, — determined not to be offended when no wrong is meant, nor even when it is, unless the offense be against God. (from Miscellaneous Writings, p. 224)

What is peace to you?

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the confidence of Christ

Spiritual resource to share: serenity

I am so very impressed with the story of Jesus raising Lazarus. (Click here to read this story.) This account, in particular, was one of his last acts and is instructive in the way he overcame numerous obstacles in order to raise Lazarus. Some of these obstacles were:

• Jesus' dearly loved friends (Martha and Mary) were grieved and burdened by Lazarus' death
• the misunderstanding and disbelief of the resurrection and its practical possibility now
• the Jewish thought at that time said a person dead for more than three days was beyond resuscitation
• the growing hostility from Jerusalem's leadership
• the crowds of people standing by including professional mourners and others who probably generally did not believe that a resurrection was possible.

And what did Jesus do when he got to the gravesite? He gave thanks - not for God's sake, but for the people around him, so that they might believe.

When reading of accounts like these, I like to juxtapose another verse from the Bible from Philippians 2:5 "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" and consider what Jesus was seeing and feeling at that moment? Jesus must have felt profoundly the ultimate confidence in God as life, the certainty of his mission and unquestioned expectation that God's will is done.

Bible stories like these give me time to ponder the promise that we, too, can feel God's presence and feel a confidence that comes from the proof that God's guidance and love are a tangible force in our lives.

Resurrection is a present possibility. Whether we are dealing with confusing relationships, a lack of direction in our lives, oppressive poltical situations, doubt, terminal illness, death, or simply feel we can't get our own footing in the noise of materialism today, we can look to Christ Jesus' example and draw from his confidence in God. Even if we can take a small step in that direction, we can make progress and see more light day by day by day.

All the mornings of the World by Sonja Maneri. Click on art to go to her website.




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The serenity of ice fishing and the morality of wild animals

I’ll be upfront with the lesson learned here.
Once you dive deeper into the spiritual reality of all things, you find common ground EVERYWHERE.

I recently moved from a city/suburban life to a rural life. In the city, I needed to see large open spaces – just space enough beneath skyscrapers to see the sky would suffice on weekdays, but weekends I needed to see a sweep of prairie or a vista of ocean to feel at peace.

So, I love it here: the woods, winter, wind and sky. The cold is cold to the bone. The big empty sky is expansive, the wind brings inspiration and here you see life constantly renewing itself. Here it is easy to be inspired and let my ideas and my writing flow.

However, I wasn’t prepared for the culture of fishing and hunting. This is BIG here (this is only news to those who live beyond a 500 mile radius from here). The economy, the music, the kids’ school attendance – all are effected by hunting and fishing. For some it is their sport, for others, it is how they have enough to eat. For me, I just didn’t get it.

I am fortunate to be living close to relatives who love hunting and fishing. Already my younger son is jumping at the gun (so to speak) to learn how to shoot rifles and to have my brother-in-law take him out this hunting season.

My sister-in-law explains to me that she wants to teach me the serenity of ice-fishing. Here, she explains, you are out in this wide-open space filled with stillness. Everything is white, cold and silent. Even through the hole in the ice, the slow rare sites of the movements of fish keep pace with a forzen rhythm. The peace and the time alone are nourishing. The earth, though still asleep, continues to yield bountifully.

My husband’s uncle is a big deer hunter. He, along with his lifelong wife, are good hearted and practical people. He says he will never hunt bear, however, because bear mate for life. Although this leads me to speculate about the morality of deer, it is surprising that he would take a bear's monogamy as a criteria for hunting. It speaks of our connection to all living things, of our ability to help create a balance in the life and death of wildlife, and of our personal connection and identification with wild animals.

In the Bible in Genesis 1, verse 26, indicates that God has given man dominion over the earth. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes,

"Man, made in His (God’s) likeness, possesses and reflects God’s dominion over all the earth."

This is not about domination over the earth, but God’s dominion – a loving, life preserving responsibility to care for the earth.

It is this loving caretaking, the appreciation of nature and the careful knowledge of the wilderness that I can embrace. I don’t know if I will ever hunt or fish, but I can feel at home with those who do.

Later,

Kim

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