
Know that your kindness, your happiness, and your goodness are what sparkles and shines in this world…and that IS enough.

Know that your kindness, your happiness, and your goodness are what sparkles and shines in this world…and that IS enough.

Compassion, peace, and calm cannot be forced. One cannot demand that someone be compassionate. One cannot command peace and calm. Rather, one must model it, live it, and know that the path to peace in ourselves and others is a steady process of balancing ego and replacing envy and judgment with love and inspiration. And that is the hard work that we must individually choose to do.

No matter that anger laps at your feet,
No matter that fear and distrust appear to form walls around you,
No matter that hope feels smothered,
Spiral upwards, out of the ashes of perceived despair,
Fill the air with compassion.
As long as the flames of compassion dance,
We can know only peace and joy.
Right outside the door of my heart
Sit two comfy chairs,
Where we once laughed and loved together.
Sometimes those chairs seem empty.
Then I remind myself…
They are abundantly full,
Full of the memories I have of you, of us, of our laughter and our love,
And then, I smile because that I know will last forever.

To know unconditionally is one thing.
To love unconditionally is another.
Peace…to know my own grace.
In the stillness of my breath, the pain goes away, life’s challenges lie outside of me, and I know true peace. In every breath, I am me, the me that exists beyond time and space, the infinite, radiant me, the me that I sometimes forget until I rest in the cradle of my breath.
The art of happiness is to serve…not just those you choose to serve…not just at times that are convenient to serve…not just from the excess reserves…but to serve…all.

When I am truly present, I feel each experience within my body. I receive it with my breath. I prod it with my thoughts and explore it with my feelings. Then, as I peel away these aspects of experience, these many layers of me, my inner wisdom welcomes that experience, absorbing it like a sponge, until that experience becomes me.
When the layers dissolve, all that I experience is me.

Practice peace, love, and joy…not just in the ability to restrain exterior actions, but in every word, every thought, non-harming. Love, truly love, within and let the peace begin.