“His are the gifts that we inherited before time was, and that will still be ours when time has passed into eternity. His are the gifts that are within us now, for they are timeless. And we need not wait to have them. They belong to us today.” ACIM* (Lesson 104) on achieving inner peace. “When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.” Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) German-American scientist
What “great gifts” of your own have you used lately, to achieve inner peace?
Einstein Words of Wisdom (4:11)
Our Lady Peace
by Mark van Doren
How far is it to peace, the piper sighed,
The solitary, sweating as he paused.
Asphalt the noon; the ravens, terrified,
Fled carrion thunder that percussion caused.
The envelope of earth was powder loud;
The taut wings shivered, driven at the sun.
The piper put his pipe away and bowed.
Not here, he said. I hunt the love-cool one,
The dancer with the clipped hair. Where is she?
We shook our heads, parting for him to pass.
Our lady was of no such trim degree,
And none of us had seen her face, alas.
She was the very ridges that we must scale,
Securing the rough top. And how she smiled
Was how our strength would issue. Not to fail
Was having her, gigantic, undefiled,
For homely goddess, big as the world that burned,
Grandmother and taskmistress, frild and town.
We let the stranger go; but when we turned
Our lady lived, fierce in each other’s frown.
Inner peace is such an interesting concept because it is extremely subjective to each person and their values and morals, and to achieve it, is an even harder concept to grasp. Inner peace to me would be a moment where I feel absent minded and don’t have plaguing thoughts of anxiety because I am content in myself and all that I am and stand for and these moments are achievable but it’s important to understand the difference between inner peace and a temporary distraction. For example, my friends and I played a game last night and throughout that game, any thoughts of anxiety were practically non-existent because I was content in the moment with my friends. That is an example of a temporary distraction because while I was absent minded and had no anxiety, it was not because of my own content in myself but due to a distraction. I struggle with inner peace and can’t say a time where I believe I have ever achieved it and while sometimes that can be discouraging, I believe that it takes time to fully love the person you are and if that is what will take for me to achieve inner peace, then I am willing to wait for it.