Dear Reader – In the past months I have been busy working on two my latest books and as a result I neglected to keep up with my blog. Thanks for your interest and for reading!
I was seven years old standing in the basement telling my father I wished I had never been born. What can be going on in a child’s life that these words would come out of his mouth at such a young age? While it took me many more years to name it, growing up in a home affected by alcoholism and abuse takes an immense toll on a child. And so I found myself having lost touch with any sense of serenity and peace. I learned quickly how to hide the pain and despair with a smile.
You can learn how to feel safe enough to give voice to the pain you carry with you. When I have no internal peace it is too easy to project my inner chaos onto the world around me. Peace comes from the inside. A lot of us have likely spent much of our lives dealing with – or not dealing with – conflict and anger. Some of it internal and some of it external. You can learn how, after years of being controlled by your anger, to make it work for you. When you do this, the outside world changes as if it has been magically repainted by an invisible artist’s hand. Suddenly the world that seemed so hostile and scary is a place of wonder and awe.
When we accept ourselves, others, and the world around us as they are, we will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. When we see ourselves for who we are not for what we have done or what we do, we will know peace. When we stop fighting everything and everyone we will know peace. When we surrender to the mystery of life and live each moment to its fullest we will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
This promise says “comprehend” and “know” – it does not say that we will always be serene and peaceful. It simply says that we will, once again, know what it feels like to be at peace with this world and we will learn that it is our decision as to whether the world ever becomes a hostile and scary place again.
