Seeking Peace

Maybe it’s the fact that all three young adult children are home. Maybe it’s because it’s summer and I want to play more and work less. Maybe it’s that I’m a boomer woman and experiencing peri-menopausal symptoms. Maybe it’s a bit of all the above. Who really knows?

Lately, I’m seeking peace. I want deep down, honest to goodness, peace in my heart. I want the kind that can only come from the love of Jesus.

Early morning, while sitting on the patio, surrounded by my Bible, journal, study, and prayer folder – petunia aroma, chirping birds, buzzing locusts, sun to my left, tall pines to my right, dog at my feet, I feel it seep in from the top of my midlife highlighted head to the bottom of my pink pedicured summer toes. The peace settles in and resides completely.

Then I close my God centered items, place them back in the basket at the kitchen table, head off to throw in laundry, water a few plants, straighten from the hours of young adult livelihood lived while hubby and I slept, and then get to work.

There are calls to make, emails to answer, forums in which to post, bills to be paid, writing to do, contest entries to be read, and the list goes on.

A couple hours later, I’m searching… The house phone rings, work phone, cell phone – all ring – friends come to call, the kids are coming and going, the dryer buzzes, dog barks, mailman arrives – the demands are piling up. Life’s in full swing.

I’ve lost that peaceful feeling. Sometimes - by God’s grace, I hear that still small voice and I’m called back to peace.

Other times – I’m so wrapped up, so charged, full steam ahead, lots of energy, onward, and I lose it totally…

until I awaken the next day, check in with God, and begin again.

I’m grateful He’s willing to greet me each morning, forgive me for losing Him, and allow me to begin again.

Does this sound familiar?

For God is not a God of confusion, but a God of peace. -1 Corinthians 14:33

What beautiful thoughts, Dotsie. I am moved by it all. I think the peace is always with us, we just have to seek it and hear it and feel it above this noise we call life. When I am seeking inner peace, I sit very still and just listen.

Thank you for these thoughts. They really spoke to me today!

Thank you, Dotsie. I also think peace is always
there. But it is easy to get caught up in our daily
doings and forget just a little.

Yes Peace.
I worked with a lady who prayed each morning as she started her working day...her desk had texts etc.She was quite open and public about her faith.
I differed in that only when asked I would share my belief.

she would ask for whatever she sought that day.Varied things..simple messages she sought.
One day she asked what I desired most and my answer was peace. I believe an inner peace allows me to function and best serve God.And yes this was when I was around 50.I think we alter our values according to a stage we have reached. When I have peace I can also feel joy.compassion and energy.Peace for me is not passive it is a state of balance.

It has to be worked for and attended to.In whatever way works for whatever situation.
Mountain ash

What a beautiful thread. Dotsie, the image of you sitting at your table every morning, surrounded by God in such a variety of ways, just fills me...with a mixture of awe, delight, hope, inspiration and yes, joy. Every morning now at breakfast, instead of reading the newspaper, I read a chapter out of one of those Women of Faith studies (I'm still working on the "Contagious Joy" - but now it's meaning a whole lot more than it did when I first began it). Every morning, I look forward to that moment when I can open that book and read that day's message (I also have daily inspirational books that I read earlier before even getting out of bed!). The moment I open that book, the image of you doing the same fills me with a sense of companionship, fellowship and yes, joy!

Mountain Ash, I love your words about peace. I especially take to heart "peace for me is not passive, it is a state of balance". That's my quest, finding and living out of a core of joy and peace, or in your words which help to clarify it even more, a state of balance.

Eagle
we earn our peace by understanding our anxiety. Sifting the chaff.

Middle Years ©

Fife, Scotland
2005

Middle years when sufficient has been absorbed
From life itself gives the platform of authenticity
This is from where we can sift the grains of truth
From the chaff of needless planting
Sown by the ideas and beliefs of others

Each season has its glory days
For me the vitality of spring
When races were run and days long
Still give joy in their shining yellow

Summer too when two paths in tandem
Enticed the woman and mother in me
Clever juggler that I was
Keeping all the balls circulating

Early autumn stocktaking time
The platform where I mill the grains
Done in solitary repose I now have choice
That only autumn brings

Autumn after a long summer is golden
No races await but words gather
Are in the wings waiting to be woven
Into a lasting force. evidence of my living

Hopefully a kind winter awaits
I prepare by drawing in the harvest
I have sown and gathered
Yes some chaff must be swept away

Beautiful sentiments Eagle and Mountain.

I also love the idea of peace being a state of balance. That spoke to me.

Eagle, one of the things that moved me to being in the word was sitting at a class at church and listneing to a woman say, "My days are much better when I pick up my Bible instead of the paper." Her words stuck with me and for years I heard her voice in the morning.

Mountain Ash, your poem is so perceptive - and encapsulates my own evolution so well. "This is from where we can sift the grains of truth From the chaff of needless planting Sown by the ideas and beliefs of others" pretty much sums up my journey right now.

The hard work isn't so much pulling out the chaff/weeds planted by others, it's having to repair the soil and plant new truths that will nourish and sustain me into the next phase of my life. The roots of the old chaff go deep and keep sneaking back up to choke out the new growth...requiring vigilance and constant care (and replanting) to ensure that the new growth (ie, way of thinking) becomes rooted enough to hold its own and thrive through anything new seasons might throw at it.

Interestingly
last night's lecture by Jan de Vries talked about the healing properties of plants. He mentioned amongst many others couch grass..which is the naughty weed here which is so difficult to remove.
yet here he was saying how it could heal.

Often its what is said to me and I pick up that us the answer to other issues.As if the Universe is giving clues.
Ponder on that .

In equal measure last night I was given a rare connection with a nurse/reiki healer who invited me to a healing circle and a convesation with a local person back from abroad.She poured her opinion toxicly on me like petrol on a fire..Just when I was having a fine time.It kept me awake for a long time.Processing the bigger picture.
My task today has been to become balanced again.
Ongoing work I surmise.
Mountain ash