Peace is every step

Peace is Every Step* 

It’s been a big week. My justice antenna has been on high alert and I’ve loved the adrenalin rush that comes with the experience of being in solidarity with others focussed around a cause that supports human flourishing. In Enneagram language, I identify as a #9, and for the most part seek peace in my everyday life and world around me. I don’t get up in the morning and think, ‘how can I rock the boat today’. But if there is a boat that needs to change its course, I’m not averse to creating some waves. Peace, I’ve learned, is something that is often experienced after a little bit of conflict or adversity, both of which are necessary to generate change. Maintaining a ‘head buried in the sand’, or ‘leaving it to someone else’ approach doesn’t effect necessary change, although there are some who are designed to challenge systems better than others. I’ll enter into the fray when I feel particularly motivated, but for the most part will tuck myself quietly away in my little corner of the world.

I was inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem Messenger (below), and a conversation with a friend to consider the places we encounter that offer us peace which in itself (in my view and experience) is at the very heart of the Divine, however known or named by you.

The same is true of the other fruit of the spirit as they are referred to in the biblical narrative. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control - Galatians 5v23-24 

I quote the Bible here, however I don’t believe it owns, is the source of, or is an instruction manual concerning these ways of being, rather this particular passage is one description of what lies at the heart or essence of all of life, which is in itself sacred. Wherever these virtues are found, there is a clue and sign of the presence of the Divine.

Wherever Peace is, there is God.

To embrace this idea enables us to extend our image and therefore experience of God, which is not then restricted to a set of ideas or doctrines that lay within the cover of a sacred text.. This way of seeing has enlarged my ability to both seek and find God in the not so conventional spaces. 

Is the morning smell of a freshly brewed pot of coffee that someone has prepared for you an invitation to experience the presence of God? Can it be? Can you stretch your imagination to find sacred presence in a blade of grass?

I have been on a journey over the years to dismantle prescribed ways of being with God (often called prayer) that have promised to lead me into the presence, or fill me with peace of God, (same thing). Not fitting the mould used to leave me feeling like something might be wrong with me, which in hindsight was only because there were certain ways of being that were valued over others. This was the cause of anxiety, something which sadly has been used as a tool in (contemporary) Christianity to keep people bound within a set of prescribed doctrines, or rules. The script was set and deviation from it might get me into some kind of trouble, although I was never really sure what that might look like. These days I’m comfortable (and safe) in the knowledge that whatever brings me peace is itself a sacred presence, and I’m on the continued hunt for new and improved ways of connecting with the Divine :)

Mary Oliver’s poem, Messenger  is a beautiful offering that keeps me grounded in what is real, and from there I am able to launch into the world that I cannot control, like the world I live in right now for example! The experiences I have with the natural world around me hold me in the same way an anchor would hold a small boat that was being lashed in a storm.

Peace is Every Step is becoming my mantra

(Peace is Every Step*, Thich Nhat Hahn, 1991 Bantam Books). 

The Messenger

My work is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—

equal seekers of sweetness.

Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.

Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat turn?

Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?

Let me keep my mind on matters,

which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be

astonished.

The phoebe, the delphinium.

The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.

Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart

and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

that we live forever.

Mary Oliver

A peaceful covid-lockdown day and a walk up the middle of my road, (rather than the footpath). It’s amazing how the view, and perspective changes.