“If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills, If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles, If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it, If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time, If you can overlook when people take things out on you when, through no fault of yours, something goes wrong, If you can take criticism and blame without resentment, If you can face the world without lies and deceit, If you can conquer tension without medical help, If you can relax without liquor, If you can sleep without the aid of drugs, Then you are probably a dog or a cat.” David Chernikoff
Someone sent me this quote recently and two thoughts immediately arose: 1. “I am so far from dog-hood it is not even funny.” and 2. “This is a formula for peace.” Okay, and then a 3rd thought, “Damn.”
Evidence of serenity is all around me. The bunnies happily munching early in the morning, despite the evidence of a very healthy looking grey fox each afternoon. “Where is he dining?” I wonder, “If not here?” The songbirds who greet each morning chirpily despite the relentless humidity and heat in our town. The gurgling brooks, the flitting butterflies, the oh-so-still-she-spider on her web. Quietude, rest, respite, all around in nature. In people…not so much.
We know peace is found in stillness and contemplation.
We know it is found also in the company of trusted others.
Recently, though, I’ve begun to consider an alternative path to peace. A kind of hard-earned tranquility. The kind of calm that arises at the end of meaningful effort. Of digging in and showing up and fully offering what one can. I think now of the young rescuers who broached the floods of Kerr County, Texas, for hours to bring young ones to safety. Or the volunteers who commit as fires rage to feed rescuers and help those who have been unhomed. Or how about the the person in your neighborhood who brightens every single day, while walking their dog, with a real wave, not the half-hearted “I-have-to-wave-because-it’s-what-we-do-on-this-street” obligation wave, but the wave that actually invites you over to chat and receive dog-love and get to know another as if our moments together mean something.
There is a peace that comes from fulfilling the promise of our own commitments…our values…our sense of honor in this world. It is not a flop-down-and-sleep-like-a-Newfie-after-a-3-hour-romp-in-the-water kind of peace, but rather the peace of the warrior, of the guardian, of the champion. The peace of fatigue and meaning, of weariness and of dignity.
Do we wish for the serenity of the doodle? Of course.
Can we find the restfulness of the “man who is in the arena” to quote President Roosevelt? I do believe we can. (Here is his full speech: https://www.theodorerooseveltc…
In a world gone mad we are blessed…literally graced with the gifts of natural world and creatures that do know how and when to rest and sing and blossom and flit and flop on a cool stone at night. And many of us, not all, but many, are also blessed with a freedom…the freedom to choose how we live and how we help to build better, in all the counties of our lands.
I wish for you peace. Good work without fear, tea in the morning without panic, and contentment at night, knowing that you have shown up with a full heart and done what you can to contribute as you can.
With love, Maria
