A Peace Perscription from "Dr." Anne LaMott

O.K. She's not a real doctor, but here is a Peace prescription, from Anne La Mott's book "Grace Eventually". "The best way to change the world is to change your mind, which often requires FEEDING YOURSELF. It makes for biochemical Peace........You find energy to do something you hadn't expected to do."

Where in your life do you need feeding, spiritually, emotionally, physically? And if you had that much needed meal, how could you create Peace?

Mangia my friend. Mangia!

Love,

Darlene

A Peaceful Tiger Koan

A monk was hurrying to the Tranquility Temple. It was getting dark. Impatient, he took a short cut through the jungle where he ran smack, dab into a rather large tiger! "Ah! Thank you teacher.", said the monk bowing deeply. The tiger, being tiger and very hungry, as tigers often are, gobbled up the monk and fell Peacefully asleep!

There are many paths to tranquility. None of them include short cuts or hurrying!

Love,

Darlene

"Play what's not there!"

Miles Davis, an extraordinary jazz artist, said, "Don't play what's there. Play what's not there". He risked dancing in a zone beyond the obvious and the comfortable, listening intently, inwardly and outwardly, trusting and discerning a path to an original, joyful place.

He knew that possibility and Peace is found in going to the "not there" places; in the places found when we venture outside the ordinary. There we discover a whole new music. Like wow!

Crazy!

Love,

Darlene

A Peace Practice

What would happen if you said "I love you" at the beginning of every sentence?
What would happen if you thought "I love you" at the beginning of every thought?

Willing to find out?

Love,

Darlene

A Candle for Peace!

The ancient Celts believed that each of us has an "inner light"!

Imagine today that your inner light is a candle warming you inside and flickering when you move too quickly. Imagine it providing that extra luminosity others need to see their way through the day.

Your light is for you. It's for others. And it's also for Peace.

Move at "candle speed" and glow today!

Recovering Yourself in Peace

Thich Nhat Hanh says, "breathing mindfully in any position at any time can help you recover yourself". In the Peace of mindfullness, breathing in and out as we move through our day, or as we sit to meditate or pray, we come back to who we really are, we "recover" ourselves, retrieving our Essence from the noise and distractions of the moment. Our essence is Peace and joy RIGHT NOW and it is available in the present moment when we are still and breathe.

"If we do not have Peace and joy right now, when will we have it?" asks Nhat Hanh. How long will we wait for our external circumstances to change before we begin? Will it be tommorrow, the next day, next year?

Why wait? Peace is available right now!

Love,

Darlene

Get tangled up for Peace!

Do you want to create Peace in your intimate relationships? Then send the one you love Peaceful thoughts through prayer or meditation!

A recent, thoroughly scientific double blind study showed that partners can physically affect each other by focusing their thoughts on them. See www.npr.org for a story by Barbara Bradly Haggerty called Can Positive Thoughts Help Another Person? The scientific explanation is something called quantum entanglement, which says "once two particles have interacted (as in people in intimate relationships), if you separate them, EVEN BY MILES, they behave as if they are still connected"! Does this not blow you completely away?

If you want some simple, delightful instruction on the benefits of mindfullness and meditation, read Thich Nhat Hanh's book Peace is Every Step. If you would like to read about powerful prayer I recommend Brother David Steindl-Rast's book, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer.


Entangled and sending you Peaceful thoughts,

Darlene