Pursuing Peace

As I have mentioned earlier, my word for this year is INTENTIONAL.  As the year continues to unfold, I search for possibilities to apply this concept to my life.  As part of that process, I see the importance of knowing what I needed to be intentional about.  Many of those things were obvious and I had already created habits to support them…like fitness, health, family time, organization, etc.  I had created systems in my routine to steer me closer to those concepts.  

At some point, however, I realized that I wanted peace in life, but had not added any items to my to-do list to related to it.  When I looked at my calendar, there was nothing on there that was in any way related to peace. My quest for peace was more of a wish than an actual plan.  I guess I thought peace would magically appear.  

So, it became clear that something needed to change and peace also needed a support system.  What I discovered through this process can be grouped into to basic categories.  

First, I needed to take a pause in some way.  It could be meditation, a walk, sitting on the porch for a few moments on my own, doing a puzzle.  This pausing seemed unproductive at first.  However, the benefit of the pause is that it makes space for the Holy Spirit to speak into my life.  It also allows my brain to reorder itself and meet the challenges of the day in a new way. 

The second category in the pursuit of peace is related to the first.  It is reflection.  It takes the pause one step further in analyzing my life.  What is working, where I can grow, what opportunities I am not aware of, what things are we taking for granted.  This past year, we have experienced this pause on a collective basis.  

Now that we are resuming a more active schedule, I intend to retain the items on my list that related to peace.  I want to elevate them and not hope they happen if I ever have extra time.  In an effort to inspire you in the same direction, I have included a guided visualization from an earlier post titled The Practice of Peace.  What peace practices can you think of that could be added to your calendar?