True Peace … (12/26/11)
The first Path to true Peace (discussed in yesterday’s post) is easy to forget and yet just as easy to re-member — simply pause in any given moment of any given day to re-mind yourself how Beauty-full it is to be alive (with Now being allWays the best time to do so). It is an internal Road — a choice to be simultaneously conscious and grateful.
The second Path to true Peace is an active one –… it is the Road we take whenever we choose to do a Kind Deed for another; whenever we choose to show another (with our actions) that we truly Care. This is the Road of LOVE (which is a verb, by the Way — not a feeling).
These two Paths can be walked relatively easily when things are going well … It is easy to be thankful when receiving gifts for Christmas — It is easy to be amazed when walking across a fresh snowfall — It is easy to be friendly to those we love.
And yet it is not a challenge to engage choices that are easy to make. We only attain a sense of Meaning & Worth & Purpose to this amazing life when we do the difficult deed — when we engage the act that brings us no direct personal benefit; when we have the courage to “be Kind when least inclined”.
To be grateful when we are reveling in abundance can make us feel temporarily cozy, and yet real PEACE only comes in those moments when we are steeped in despair & yet choose to pause and be thankful for life ANYWAY.
To feel joyous when we are reveling in physical pleasures can makes feel temporarily happy, and yet real JOY only comes in those moments when we are hungry or tired or depressed or in pain & yet choose to pause and seek to relieve the burdens of another ANYWAY.
To be nice to our friends & family members & sweethearts can make us feel temporarily loved, and yet real LOVE only comes to us in those moments when we are being attacked or abandoned & yet choose to pause and be Kind to those “enemies” ANYWAY.
This is the one Great Wisdom that rests at the Center of all the Teachings of all the Masters … This is what it means to awaken and know what it means to be truly Human(e) … This is the Truth we can all take forth today as we go forth to build lives that are not only thankful, but Grateful — not only happy but Joyous — not only nice, but Loving.
It is the most difficult of Roads to travel, and yet it is the Road with by far the grandest of views — with by far the richest of destinations.
Nothing compares to the Peace that comes to those with the Courage to truly LOVE those around them. And it is this Peace — and this Peace only — that I wish for each of you … today & evermore.
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