SleepingOrchid

Peace=SERENITY “Welcome”

Peace is the absence of strife; a sense of repletion and comfort. It is less active than joy, and people are actually afraid of it, the way they’re afraid of heaven. If everything’s already achieved, then isn’t hope dead? Our individualities would blur, because we are creatures of hope. If we sharpen ourselves against others as if they were cuttle bones, isn’t the absence of effort an absence of self-definition? We would just sink back into the undifferentiated mass of persons as into a heavenly cloud, all light, without defining shadow. But this is just semantics because Peace makes no sense without love and love is active. Harmony is desirable; disharmony is not. Listening to a cacophony is wearisome after the first few seconds, while harmonics, however subtle and complex, produce feelings of rightness, joy and Peace.

How will we know when we’ve “arrived?”

What will that feel like? How will we recognize it? Is it even a “desirable” state? It is time to concretize this state of bliss we have been yearning for, ask ourselves what are its defining features? It is dangerous to blindly push on when we have no concept where we are going. At what point will we relax? What is our concept of “peace” A related concept is “plenty” and another is “enough.”

Where does confidence come from?

Most Americans think confidence comes from a track record of rewarded accomplishments. In pursuit of a soulmate, let’s imagine you in conversation with a stranger. As you’re wondering about them and trying to get to know them, you rapidly realize that spouting your resume and listening while they brag is NOT, actually, informative communication. What you really want to do is get a “feel for the other person’s “essence.” One of the most essential distinctions we see is between restlessness and being at peace. A fact all of us are familiar with is that, when you are not actively looking for attachment, when you are feeling “enough”, people flock to you. It is because of that very sense of being “at peace” with yourself. Others want that sense for themselves, they are intensely attracted to a peaceful aura, which comes across as confidence, even if you haven’t got a single accomplishment to brag about. People like that are a relief…a relaxation…a vacation to be around. Can a sense of peace be “faked”? Obviously not. Time – and it doesn’t take much time – will fast reveal the truth. Much less trouble to cultivate ACTUAL peace. How do we do that? Through the calming disciplines of mindfulness, yoga and gratitude cultivation. If we can demonstrate that we are open to joy, people will desire us.

HALF CENTURY PLANT

In hurriedness I sail
While your soul cultivates
Burning in its beauty
I incinerate in your green vision
My littleness lost to your largesse –
A sister kite to your slow unfolding.
Your green steps show me how
To become a century plant
Remembering flowers.