Embrace What's In Your Face

I was speaking with a client recently, on this topic of staying in peace.

She had come to the realization that her place in life was to be out in the open; where plowed fields and open vistas were only interrupted by the occasional flock of birds or other wildlife.

“It is so easy for me to be peaceful, out there.” My friend commented.

Another person told me that she loved being in my office because it was so easy to leave the world behind, and be totally peaceful in the hour we have together.

Still another told me that she wanted to stay in meditation, constantly, because she felt peace there.

Every peace seeker, who has met with any degree of success, has found some set of outer circumstances where he/she finds it easier to be in peace. For most, this includes some sort of detachment from the chaos of their world.

It may be as brief as an epiphany of peace in a 20 minute meditation, or it may be an awareness of oneness during a month long retreat in the woods.

I think these glimpses of the possibility of peace are wonderful. They are the rewards available to us for our decision and commitment to this path.

Our work, however; is to bring the peace experience into our daily lives. This is where the rubber meets the road.

Many seekers have given up their hectic lives and moved to some different venue to pursue the monastic life; only to learn that their experience of peace can still be disrupted, by a different stimulus.

Our work is right here, right now, in our own backyard and in the lives we have created. Everything we need to learn is already in place for us.

Every teacher we need is already in our face.

This is always true.

The romantic notion of walking away from our current life and finding peace in some foreign ashram is a ruse. The problem is, we go with us. All of the baggage that prevents us from being in peace, right here, right now; also makes the trip.

Oh the catalysts will change, but the result will be the same.

Embrace what’s in your face.

Hidden therein are all the secrets you will ever need to uncover.