Expressing Peace. Giving Help. 92.
Mr. Tweed Gives Help
As hard as it may sometimes be to ask for help, giving help is a snap.
There’s a sweet children’s book — Mr. Tweed’s Good Deeds — which teaches counting but even more teaches the joy and the gifting of helping others. As Mr. Tweed walks through the village, he encounters friends and acquaintances who’ve lost something: one kite, two kittens, three mice….
Young readers are invited to help Mr. Tweed find the missing things and learn their numbers at the same time. And as the walk through town ends, all the missing items are located and Mr. Tweed is praised and celebrated by his friends.
I’m betting Mr. Tweed felt an abundance of personal peace after that day. How do you feel after doing a favor for someone?
Some of the people ask Mr. Tweed to help; others he offers to help without their asking. Is the peace you experience any different, whether you’ve responded to a request or proactively offered help?
Mr. Tweed wasn’t trying to meet a quota for giving help. If the book weren’t as much about learning to count as the feel good of helping, Mr. Tweed might not even know how many times he did good for another. The quality of what you do for someone else is surely more important than how many times you do that good. However, might counting off the help you gave today allow you to reflect more fully on the peace you can enjoy?
Noticing, enjoying, and being thankful for the peace you feel are sure links to the Peace from which it comes. “Do yourself a favor” takes on richer meaning.
Sweet Spirit, Giver of Favors,
what a gift it is to give help.
Thank you.
Whether asked for help or offering
off the cuff,
giving a hand allows us hearts full of peace.
The calm and reward that bless us
when we extend our aid, no matter whether
large or small, demanding or a snap,
stay with us long enough
that we realize the peace
and that you are its Source,
that we are eager to repeat the gift
and keep on helping.
We thank you, GOD, that our eyes are sharp,
our ears alert that chances to help another
do not pass unnoticed.
Or untaken.
And so it is. And so we thank you, GOD.
Amen. Amen.
Enjoy Peace. Express Peace.
In: Commitment, Happiness, Inner Peace, Joy, Peace, Prayer, Praying · Tagged with: creativity, Joy, Peace, praying, spiritual simplicity
Expressing Peace. Common Ground. 91
Common Ground
Solent News & Photo Agency
“Common ground” is a benefit from demonstrating cultural awareness, especially in business. I’m including that in a training module I’m now developing; I’ve been working on clear understanding of what “common ground” means.
I recall the importance of playgrounds years ago and the insistence on playing fair. That relates to a common ground. These days I hear the phrase “level the playing field” applied to all sorts of interactions, not only sports. That, too, is about common ground.
Parking lots are common ground. Anyone shopping in the store can use the parking lot.
A break from the training project this afternoon, I went for a run. I came upon a nickle-size garden spider scurrying across the wide sidewalk. I slowed so he knew he had time and space to get to the other side. I remembered a similar scenario four years ago when I slowed to let a 4-foot snake slide across the Town Lake running path ahead of me.
Common ground. Theirs. Mine. Ours. Yours. Mine. Ours.
The literal definition of common ground is “something that people agree about even if they disagree about other things.”
In that agreement there is peace. And if that agreement is in the midst of disagreement, it’s even richer peace. Hurricane winds magnify the wonderful calm of the hurricane’s eye. Finding something shared, something similar, something co-owned with others brings peace, especially surrounded by differences.
What joy to rest in the peace that every one, every thing, every place shares creation by Spirit. What peace to know the joy that every place, every thing, every one is Spirit.
Common ground. Seems holy, doesn’t it?
Good Friend, GOD,
you lead us readily to common ground.
You let us discover what is ours to share
and then to know the sharing is what’s true
and so what matters.
Sweet Spirit, we shall not take for granted
common ground, the special gift
that lets us know your Peace amid what is not real.
We encourage our hearts to recognize
our common ground that we might fertilize it
with our love and with your grace.
What we find is our point of concert
we celebrate and cherish.
And for these gifts we thank you, GOD.
And so it is. And so we let it be.
Amen. Amen.
Engjoy Peace. Expres Peace.
In: Happiness, Home, Inner Peace, Joy, Love, Oneness, Peace, Prayer, Praying · Tagged with: Joy, Love, Peace, praying, spiritual simplicity
Expressing Peace. Internal Compass. 90.
What’s Your Compass?
Recent research finds evidence that cows have an internal compass. Using Google Earth satellite photographs of more than 8,000 cows worldwide, Hynek Burda discovered that virtually every cow faced due north or south when grazing or resting. That’s lined up with earth’s magnetism.
Papaw, my granddad, never carried a compass. He never got lost. He knew the earth signs: the sun rises in the east, sets in the west; moss grows on trees’ north side. I won’t claim he had an internal compass, but he always knew where he was going.
Monarch butterflies navigate their migration between the US and central Mexico by sunlight primarily. When it’s cloudy they somehow follow the magnetic clues that earth provides. That’s their internal compass.
I’ve heard more than one person claim their car has a compass (or a mind) of its own. It’s driven from home to work and back so often, it knows the route “by heart.”
There must be something peaceful, comforting, and secure about facing in line with earth’s magnetism. 8,000 cows out of 8,000 cows are persuasive. Grandkids followed Papaw into the woods without a bit of worry. We knew he knew how to get from here to wherever. And back. Butterflies don’t rest in the shade; they flap on, certain they’ll get to Sierra Chincua, Mexico. As planned.
Maybe you don’t trust your car entirely to get you home. But the peace that you know how to get there is plenty nice.
All that’s physical. What about our spiritual compass? What is the peace that we know where we are and we know where we’re going?
Can answer only for me. It’s familiarity. Familiarity from finding and knowing the comfort of truth: how praying lets me feel, my knowing if I listen I will hear, the joy from some new way of knowing Presence. Maybe familiarity is another name for faith.
What is the power source of your spiritual compass?
Good Friend Who Holds the Compass,
what joyful relief to let you show the way.
The peace that flows from letting go
my need to struggle blazing trails,
the peace that comes from opening my heart
to hear you gently urge which path to take.
You are my Compass. You are the Magnet
drawing me ceaselessly to you.
And if I turn, attempting to walk another way,
your steady pull returns me
to the way I want to go.
Guiding Spirit, the peace from trusting
your direction frees me
to know the thrill and energy
life’s journey is.
And so it is. Amen. Amen.
Enjoy Peace. Express Peace.
Expressing Peace. Unpeace Scenario. 89.
Unpeace Scenario
A brief recount of the Unpeace Scenario, by Tim Wright.
Middle of the afternoon, a good friend asked for help with an online favor. I was in the absolute middle of a project I needed and wanted to finish today. I was eager to help because I always want good thoughts. I took a deep breath. I said, “Sure.”
I jumped right into the favor. I applied the tricks and tools I thought would work. They didn’t. I tried a time-saving shortcut. It wasn’t. As the hurry-up-and-get-this-done pressure built, I released the I-can-do-it-myself and contacted customer service. He couldn’t.
Frustration made me clenched-teeth intent to solve the problem, make it work, and get back to my assignment. And then the friend shouted over that another option had been found and I could let the favor go.
I couldn’t.
Frustration became anger. At the problem. At myself. At the service associate. At the friend. At myself. At the problem. At myself.
The Unpeace Scenario, by Tim Wright.
I deserve full credit for authoring the scene, for feeding myself the unpeace. And even for a moment reveling in it.
I listened to my ego goading me to be a hero. I obeyed my ego refusing to let me let go. I agreed with my ego insisting the service associate did not know.
I cannot blame my ego.
I closed my laptop. I laced on my running shoes. I ran in the wonderful wind that blew away the unpeace.
There is good that follows the unpeace we create. It’s the peace that makes us glad.
Perfect Presence,
the unpeace is a blessing when it
pushes me to reclaim peace.
The peace that follows is a blessing twice as big.
Thank you for consciousness
that lets me see the hole I’ve dug,
I step in and I am upset to think
I can’t get out.
Thank you more for giving me awareness
to climb out of the hole,
the sensibility to fill it up
before I walk away.
Unpeace is my creation.
Peace is the gift that teaches
me I can build better.
I love you, GOD.
And so it is. Amen. Amen.
Enjoy Peace. Express Peace.
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