Mid-week Inspiration,

Three weeks have now passed in the International Season of Non-Violence.  In those first weeks I have looked within at the ways I am able to move into a greater consciousness of peace in my own life.  I discovered within me patterns running deep, in the ways of my education and upbringing, which tend toward violence.  I identified tendencies to project onto the world the causes of my inabilities to resolve issues peacefully in my affairs.  I discovered a vocabulary that supports this self defeating behavior. 

I have more recently learned statements like “I need you…”, or ‘them’, or ‘it’ to make demands, when supposedly expressing needs, project responsibility for change away from the user. 
A recently learned favorite technique of mine has been the use of joiners such as ‘but’ and ‘yet’.  They are an excellent way of negating or belittling our own accomplishments. 

One of my most challenging daily, moment to moment, practices is to monitor my self talk and actually stop thoughts of ‘blaming’.  As a matter of course many of us blame ourselves and every one else for virtually everything.  To actually quit this practice we must quit comparing.  “Easy enough for him to say”, you may think.  

The challenge is to measure ourselves as good enough without comparing ourselves.  And this challenge comes down to our measure of self esteem.  Society has made self esteem a results oriented measuring stick; which means we can’t have any self esteem, good or bad, without first comparing.  So it is necessary for us to create or discover a new measuring stick. 
For those who have successfully set an example for us, there has been a sense of a higher power for good from which we are molded.  There have been many names for this power and there continues to be an attachment in society to those names.  The names do not matter!  In fact in most cases those names for the ultimate creative force back of all life are a hindrance which must be used with great care or not at all.

Those who have successfully altered this world through their peaceful actions have also agreed that this infinite power is a loving power which can be communicated with directly.  It is a power which never fails to support us in our actions for betterment and it is a power that actually wants us to be happy, healthy and prosperous. 

It is wonderful to think there might be such a power out there, yet it will, like electricity remain useless to us until we discover it personally.  And to discover it we must believe in it.  So at some point in order to discover real peace in our lives we must make a leap of faith.  We must abandon blame.  We must start to measure the world and ourselves as expressions of a power for good.  True, we may often express that perfection in a confused manner and, just like in the misuse of electricity, we may hurt ourselves and others, yet fundamentally we remain good because we are of that one substance which is a power for good.  

As you further discover that good in your life may peace continue to grow in your heart and life through the passage of this week.

Blessings,