Finding Peace

Finding peace is a journey. It’s easy to be a cynic. It’s easy to be negative. The worthwhile things take work. It takes effort to wake up with a smile. It takes effort to rise with gratitude. It takes effort to greet the day with a positive attitude. It takes effort to see everyone you meet, not just the people you know but everyone, as a child of the universe and a vessel of the creative spirit. It takes effort to forgive yourself and others.

People ask me how I became so calm and peaceful. It is the result of a number of small steps over a long period of time. The first step was to wake up with a smile. I can hear someone saying, “That’s easy for you to do.” You might think so, but when I began this practice, waking up was to the sound of revile onboard Naval Training Center, Great Lakes. It’s a practice that I’ve kept up for twenty-six years.

The next thing was a realization that the attitude I carried with me into the day determined what I would experience throughout the day. This is common knowledge now, but it was something I stumbled on twenty-five years ago by accident. When I was in a bad mood in the morning, the entire day would be filled with frustration and disappointment. When I shifted into a good mood, events and situations would lift.

Another thing that has made me peaceful was the realization that I don’t have to force my way through life. People are always in a rush to get to one place or another, cutting each other off in traffic, cutting in lines, pushing, biting, etc. Sounds like I live in a rough neighborhood, huh? But I see it on the roads all the time. And I used to be the same way. But then I realized that if I pictured myself doing what I wanted to do, I could do it. If I was driving in the center lane, and there was a lot of traffic, but I had to make a turn, instead of being frustrated and trying to force my way over, I could instead see myself making that turn just where I wanted to turn, and a space to merge would open up. If it didn’t happen just where I wanted it to, then it would be the next turn, and I could simply navigate another way to my destination. In doing this, I leaned not to let circumstances dictate my mood. Whenever I’m in a hurry, but I hit a red traffic light, it becomes a see or be seen moment. I take an opportunity to look around and see something special. If nothing in particular catches my eye, then I am there to be seen by someone else. If I’m in a long line, I take the same attitude, see/be seen. And I almost always see something special, or talk to someone who I wouldn’t have gotten to meet otherwise.

One of the biggest realizations that helped me was that I could treat my personal energy as a precious resource. This means that if something happens that might make me angry, I don’t have to jump into that reaction. I can take a moment and ask if this is a good use of my energy. Now sometimes I will lose my cool. It’s not often, and in retrospect I can always think of a better way that I could have handled the situation. The person who I chose to be angry at is never changed by my anger. After I cool off, he is still the same person, so who did I help? There’s always a better use for my energy. Letting it get away from me in a destructive manner only hurts me.

This isn’t everything, but I’d say these are the four biggest things that have gotten me where I am. I’m not sharing this as a practice for anyone else, but just to say this is what has worked for me. I hope you find a set of practices that helps you in your journey to finding peace.

Blessing

Blessing

I have been working with The Crystal Grid Oracle Cards by Ashley Leavy. It’s a beautiful set of cards that depicts a word and a set of crystals and stones arranged on a mandala-like grid. The card lists the stones and crystals arranged in the arrangement. It’s a nice deck to use when asking for a positive quality for contemplation or meditation. It can even be used by those who are working with synchronicity. By pulling a card in the morning, they then actively go about manifesting the quality of the card in the world around them. Today’s card is “Blessing.”

I consider a blessing to be a gift that I have received or have given myself, that benefits me or someone close to me, which if you think about it, also benefits me. I am happy and blessed when someone else is blessed. A blessing may not only be physical. It can be spiritual or emotional. But we most often think of the physical blessings of our lives.

I feel blessed to have a home and an income. I am happy to have the comfort of a cool home in the summer and a warm home in the winter. I am grateful for these things. One cannot usually contemplate a blessing without also feeling gratitude. We are taught to count our blessings at the Thanksgiving holiday. Blessing and gratitude are good friends, sharing a deep connection. Of course, there are challenges to this blessing/gratitude connection.

A difficult experience always has a blessing tied up in it. Napoleon Hill called this “the seed of an equivalent benefit.” This is usually overlooked, because these experiences also tend to have a heavy dose of sadness, fear, and miseries of various sorts attached to them. An illness or a death, a job loss, a bad decision that includes legal intervention, these and others are experiences that break us somewhat; but in each there is a blessing. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the bad feelings and thoughts that accompany such experience and forget to search for the blessing, however small, which is also present. Some might even think it silly, evil, or even sacrilegious to search for such a blessing. But not searching for it is a shame, because in those moments, we can forget that God/Goddess/Spirit/Universe loves us.

The tarot card that represents these negative experiences is The Tower. I think The Tower card should depict something of value, a diamond or a rose, within the fractured walls of the crumbling structure to represent the seed of equivalent benefit hidden within.

Crystals and stones associated with blessings vary. The stones of spiritual blessing include amethyst, chevron amethyst, and rose quartz. But just as a stranger is a friend without an introduction, all things can be a blessing in their own circumstance.

Essential oils associated with blessings include lavender, holy basil, frankincense, and myrrh. You can use essential oils in aromatherapy to spread their fragrance and essence throughout a room, or you can use a properly prepared mixture as a personal fragrance. Don’t use essential oils if you are allergic to them, and be sure to consult a professional before applying an essential oil directly to the skin.

I am carrying the Blessing card with me today, and contemplating the blessings in my life, including family and friends, and all of you wonderful people reading this now. May you also be blessed.