Peace

Today I am thankful for peace......peaceful times, being at peace with the people and relationships in life, being at peace with who and where we are in life, being a peacemaker, keeping the peace...despite all the drama that is always around you. I am thankful that though there are struggles in my life, I have been blessed with a good measure of peace.


What is peace to you? I don't think about peace on a daily basis.  I get up I go through the day...there are things that  bring me joy, things that upset me, things that cause me anxiety....and then I pass out from exhaustion and do it again....and I don't often sit and think about the peacefulness I have in my life.  I don't think about going home to a house where I am safe...with a teenage son who can be a handful, but loves me and usually tries to be a good person.  Home to three cats who think they own the place...and are always sleeping where I need to be walking or sitting.  Home to a spirited puppy who is so loud and rambunctious.  Home to visiting daughters with hearts made of music and gold.

I don't think about it at work with great people or at the grocery store or at church or on the way to my Mom's.  Sometimes when I see a sunset, or a hot air balloon...or I walk down to the pond or sit alone in the darkness, I ponder where I am in life and where I have been.  At those times I realize that I have made peace with some of the mistakes made in the past.  I realize I am at peace, in a peaceful place...and then I move on.  I try to be full of gratitude...but I don't spend a lot of time being thankful for peace...because, I guess I just take it for granted.

I take it for granted until today, when my little community is shocked by the death of a family; a father and two sons....one a classmate of my son, and another family member at large.  I have no idea what the story is, what events transpired to bring them to this awful end....but I know there has been no peace for them in the last 24 hours, and if there was a family shooting such as this...I wonder if there may have been no peace...in some degree for quite some time.  Suddenly, I am thankful for the peace in my life.  I am thankful for the quiet, calm in which I do not fear for my life...or that of my family.

I believe that an event as horrific as what has transpired in my little town this morning...is the culmination of a great deal of turmoil and unrest for this family.  I pray for all that they have endured.  I cry for two young boys who died too soon, for reasons that probably did not involve them...in a most frightening way.  For those who were ripped from this life, by the violent hands of another...I pray that they are finally at peace.  For the one who is still scared and running....I pray for the end to her fear and turmoil....I pray for her peace.

It is easy to be disillusioned in this country.......there is so much we can and should be doing better.  But tonight, I am thankful that I live in a peaceful and safe place. I am thankful that I am not living in a country at war.

Tonight I am thankful for my little life, my little corner of the world....in which there are struggles...but in which I am blessed with an existence that is full of peace.

“Peace is more than the absence of war. Peace is accord. Harmony.”

~ Laini Taylor