When Peace is All Around.

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on this earth.” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh

I met an old friend for lunch the other day.

He was tired and worn from recent events – a car that wouldn’t start, and a stack of bills that just wouldn’t end. To say the past year had been met with complications, would have been an understatement, at best.

As he recounted each of his troubles, I watched as he physically sank deeper into his chair.

‘Overwhelmed’ has such a weight to it, particularly when convinced we’re alone.

“If only I could find peace,” he said. “I could finally get ahead.”

It reminded me of a passage from Brother Thay, that we shouldn’t wait for suffering to be bone before allowing ourselves to be happy.

And yet, sadly, that seems to be our conditioning.We forget that there is peace even within our most difficult moments.

“Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize,” he offers “A blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.”

Indeed, my darlings – everything *is* a miracle, simply waiting to be recognized.

That we might find the time, the space, that one simple breath – to pull us nearer, to help us connect.

Therein lies our peace; to embrace, with serenity, the miracle of this life.

Mindfulness is just like that – with the capacity to ‘call home’ even the most dispersed of minds.

Reminding us that the breath is indeed “the bridge which connects” us back to life.

You know, suddenly ‘overwhelmed’ doesn’t feel quite so heavy – when we know that peace is all around us.

Just waiting for that one, soul-filling breath to finally find its way home.

<3

About

Tara Lemieux is a mindful wanderer, and faithful stargazer. Although she often appears to be listening with great care, rest assured she is most certainly‘forever lost in thought. She is an ardent explorer and lover of finding things previously undiscovered or at the very least mostly not-uncovered.

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