When was the last time you sat alone in a quiet place? No noise from the television. No smartphone. No interruptions from the children. Sounds like an impossibility, doesn’t it?
Too often in our pursuit of a better life, we end up with the experience of the rushed. Our mind is seldom quiet. It’s hard to be still.
Life is too noisy, and we are too busy for reflection in a quiet place. A quiet place is what we need to quiet our mind.
Cultivating Peace
Inner peace is a rare and precious commodity these days. A quiet mind encourages inner peace.
And what about when someone you once loved betrays you? Isn’t your peace of mind one of the first things to go?
So…how do we cultivate peace? Gurus teach us “positive thinking.” Others advise “Think Peace,” as if it’s possible to order peace into presence.
But what do we do when things happen to us that we can’t figure out? Or fix. Or change.
Maybe we aren’t supposed to. Inner peace doesn’t suddenly appear after we possess all the right things, when we’re with the right person or live in the right place.
Cultivating hope
Hoping for the circle of seasons to water and warm what once lay hidden — the miracle of new life.
Maybe your life right now looks a lot like a pile of rubble. As you comb through the bits and pieces of what is left, as a tornado victim sifts through remnants of nature’s destruction looking for chips of treasured china, never give up hope. Something beautiful waits beneath the barren landscape. Be patient.
Spring of Hope
In the dead of winter, I need hope. I need to believe in what I can’t see in the asleep ground beneath my feet. Flipping through garden catalogs and websites, I dream about the new growth of spring. I envision daffodils and daisies sprouting in my someday-soon flowerbeds.
But gardening is more than daydreaming. There are lots to do between now and then before you stand knee-deep in flowers.
You know if you give weeds an inch, they will take your yard; so, we mulch there and pull here. We sharpen our garden tools and prune old trees. Shoes get muddy, fingernails break, and muscles ache.
It doesn’t take long to discover that life is like gardening: always less than we hope and much more than we expect. The label on the fertilizer box says if we scatter right and water deeply, our tender vegetation will grow. It never mentions hungry rabbits and golf ball size hail and nosy deer.
Our Expectations
Sometimes our unrealistic expectations get in the way of reality. My love for roses doesn’t lessen their thorns any more than pesticides keeps pests away.
Maybe you were taught that if you are fair in your dealings, they will treat you fairly. If you work hard, eat a balanced diet, and keep your vows, you’ll be healthy, wealthy, and happy.
Expect the Unexpected
If you believe hard enough, your faith will keep you safe from loss. You never expect diseases might strike; or that the company will downsize and you’ll lose your job. And you certainly don’t expect that divorce could happen to you.
The unexpected can wipe out our dreams like the rabbit wipes out rows of lettuce. It takes strength to believe something beautiful will grow again in a damaged heart or a chewed-up flowerbed.
Things happen that are not fair. Or safe. We cannot always expect love in return. We all struggle accepting that life is what it is.
In the dead winter of our soul, we need hope. We need to believe in an infinite future we can’t see. Between now and then, there are lots to do. We need tending of our souls.
When spring arrives, we begin to notice faith and peace sprouting in our lives again. When we live with the end in mind, we come back to what matters.
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