- TWIL (This Week I Learned.)
This week is again about about peace. I have been yearning for peace and also resigning myself to the idea that perhaps, in my wider world, we’re really not in a peaceful time.
What are we supposed to do when our neighbour is not at peace? Our first job is always to work for peace within ourselves — are our lives working in a way that moves toward harmony for ourselves and people around us? Honestly, that’s an art form that I still struggle with daily.
Sometimes that means retreat — it means getting quiet and contemplative. Sometimes (and for me this is the most difficult) it means saying something necessary. Sometimes it means staying uncomfortable with a family member or friend until they are in harmony.
I think that is maybe the most difficult piece. It’s necessary sometimes to remain steadily with people we care about when they are in disharmony — they are in denial or they are not being heard.
My prayer for our wider communities is that we take a bit of time to amplify the voices of those who have not been heard and we stay with those who have a hard time listening until they are strong enough to listen.
2. Quote
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Martin Luther King Jr. — A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
3. Prompt
Are you at peace? Do you feel a sense of harmony within yourself? Is there a sense of wholeness, oneness? Or do you feel fragmented and jagged?
This week was rough for me and the best I could do was just repeat that I was feeling lots of feelings. I am not sure if you have ever felt that way?
Peace isn’t numbing — so when there’s a disharmony, it’s not that we want the music to stop playing, necessarily, it’s more like it’s time to breathe and relax into whatever is going on…likely there’s a lovely song your body wants to sing you if you can bare to listen.
You know when a song just moves you? That’s the moment I have been in all week. Almost not wanting to listen — so, in case you’ve ever felt that way, here’s a prompt:
If my body could talk, it would say….
4. Quest
I feel like it’s important to have a guided meditation this week.
Here is a link to Tara Brach’s guided meditations. I was going to choose the third one, “Inner refuge of calm” but they are all good…I just think this week it’s important to remember to take time to quiet yourself.
Now, here’s a fun quest: Every time you reach for your phone, ask yourself what you are feeling? Ask yourself what you need? Ask yourself what thought is running through your mind?
5. Level-UP / Go Deeper
Try to carry a small notebook with you this week. Write down things that make you smile. Notice resentments, notice things that calm you. Notice when you are at peace and write or draw what’s going on in those moments.
6. POD Poem of the day (Gwendolyn Brooks: Riot)
7. Podcast (The One You Feed)
8. Video (Pope Francis: Why The Only World Worth Building Includes Everyone)
9. Hero: László Tőkés, Pastor
Why? For some reason, Romania has been on my mind all week. I realized that the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu fell about 30 years ago but I realized that I had no idea how.
Turns out, we have a pastor, László Tőkés, to thank.
10. Take Care of Yourself This Week and Share if you know someone who might like this.
Wild and Precious Podcast, the audio partner to 10 Things, is available you download podcasts. Peace episode part 2 Thursday. I asked a new friend of mine, Kimberly Weeks, a Trauma Recovery Coach, for her thoughts on peace and was not disappointed.