Day 9 - Who said Peace was easy peasy?
It's just not.
There may be moments or even days when striving for Peace within ourselves, and our outer world appears and feels easier than others. These are fantastic, hard-earned moments to be enjoyed, celebrated, and fully appreciated but working for peace in our lives and the lives of others close by or far away, can and will often be hard bloody graft.
We can and will come up against resistance of many kinds, and sometimes and days, just putting one foot in front of the next is what is required, head down, push through, and know that other times and days will be lighter and brighter ahead, as they have been in the past.
Taking energy from the small but powerful and beautiful things that we can see, feel and realize in our lives, like sunlight and the warmth that can come with that, a treasured thought of a loved one that we care dearly for, a silly joke, moment or interaction we've had that makes us smile, knowing fully that we are moving with greater meaning in our lives, gratitude for what and who we have, gratitude for things that could have happened to us but didn't (like many times I almost crashed this bike but didn't).
Accepting that even when times are tough, when the wind, currents, and energy feels against us, that someone has our back, that others are also suffering and that impermanence is real, that hills will flatten out, winds or storms die down, strong waves retreat, cold frosts melt, and that difficult situation can change and we, just like all living things are able to breathe into the next minute, hour, day and go again with renewed energy, outlook, aspirations, realizing that we've come through challenging and hard days and survived and this has made us even more durable. We can do it again when required.
Enjoying the times when the flow and energy that leads towards peace is going in our favor and the favor those we love and support, makes this process and hard bloody times so much more possible, liveable and doable.
Shane O'Connor
