The English novelist Virginia Woolf once wrote, “You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” Violence, turmoil, envy, greed, animosity, power lust and corruption has proliferated our world since humans first interacted. Any thought or prayer for global peace and harmony is, in my view, ineffectual. To quote the great American author, Mark Twain, “Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to tame the human race first, and history seems to show that that cannot be done.” Rather then, our constancy of thought and prayer should be about achieving within ourselves an inner peace for that treasure is within reach of all of us.
The following allegorical tale illustrates this point:
There once was a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures. But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them.
One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.
The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all.
But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest – in perfect peace.
Which picture do you think won the prize?
The king chose the second picture. When asked why, the king replied, “Because peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace.”
While all-inclusive worldly peace is neither existent nor within our mortal grasp, inner peace is both tangible and attainable. Once revealed, it silences the outgoing negative energy of our minds and feeds our aspiring hearts. Inner peace is not affected by the roaring waters and stormy tumult of this world. This peace is available through our own command because it already resides within our souls. Once we appreciate our relationship, our oneness with the universe and all its powers, and once we realize that at the center of that universe God dwells, and that its center is really everywhere because it exists within each of us, then we will discover and achieve the real meaning of peace.
You have peace,” the old woman said, “when you make it with yourself. – Mitch Albon, The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Peace be within you and may you experience an AWE-full weekend!
William “Bill” Bacque