The Anatomy of Peace
The key to PEACE is a Decision to Be at PEACE

It is fascinating, how anything, at any time, even a few words in a song can trigger a shift in perspective, so forceful that it turns the LIGHT on. Setting us on a path to face and excavate the wounds of the past and deliver us from our own personal hell. LIGHT, unequivocally overrides the appearance of darkness and serve as a dominant force that illuminates all in its path. It paves the way for us to sit in, and live from the pristine presence of our own indwelling PEACE.

When we are willing to wake up and do the work, this cold and alone, yet phenomenal passage, transitioning from darkness to LIGHT creates a footpath that leads to Self-discovery and Self-love. Putting us on the trail of a lifetime – to reconnect and rediscover our True Self. It is here we gain a deeper understanding of what makes PEACE possible (the anatomy of PEACE, if you will) and become even more familiar with its sustaining effects, the kind that brings harmony inside the relationship we have with self, the world and others.

To be at PEACE is a choice!

We MUST walk with and in PEACE to know PEACE!
We MUST choose PEACE to be at PEACE!

I have been exposed to the rich rewards of LOVE; conversely, I have attracted the rawness of pain. I have seen letdowns, disappointments, heartbreaks, confusion, I have danced with defeat and I have broken a heart or two myself. I have kept company with the “stuff” that fuels deep emotional pain. I wasn’t bad, I was just wounded. I was enamored with a familiar cycle of pain, thinking it was my norm. I just didn’t know better.

A few years ago, I closed the chapter on a long-term romantic relationship. At the end of it all, I found myself melted down and totally depleted. My heart was liquefied in brokenness. Although I knew I had support in the people around me, I chose to be alone, so I felt alone. In retrospect, it is where I had to be, in order to learn, heal and grow. For a while, I whirled in a murky puddle of weird, strange and dark emotions. I was stuck here for quite some time. The dysfunctions of pain charmed me.

I had invested in “love” - what I thought I knew about love. I had desired “love” to look and feel a certain way. Little did I know I had caged myself into thinking only in terms of black and white and failed to color the circles of my life with shades of gray, red, yellow, blue or even purple. I failed at upping the rate of my vibration to see that LOVE is not limited. The pureness of LOVE is LOVE, and the only way to experience the fullness of its sway is to seek after it wholesomely.

Uncertainty and confusion kicked in. My days were gloomy at best and my nights were even more black, afraid, cold and obscure. Peace was a distance thing; pain became my passion and I lived here. I feasted on an achy heart. Enough to where agony served as a disconsolate obstruct to even the slightest invitation to anything that suggested romance or close affection from another. I was on an island of my own making.

It reached a point, where I had (had) enough of wrestling and grappling with life and the way things were unfolding. I was tired. It felt like I was constantly fighting the perceived voids in my life, throwing punches, only to find I was only knocking myself out. I was sinking! I felt like ending it all. I silently went underground in my depression. I masked it well. I was desperate for something different, something new. I was ready to shake the side effects of this inferno. I need a way out of this internal hell. I needed it fast. My soul was ready to break the patterns of this god-awful looming cloud. I decided it is time and I was READY.

My break came while driving to work one morning. The radio was on, I don’t know how or what directed me to listen – all I heard was the fragrant whispers in the soft, silky and soothing voice of India Arie, singing "Back to the Middle." My soul gave way, it opened up and the LIGHT entered - her words, voice and energy broke through the barriers I had unconsciously constructed; in that instant, the atmosphere within became PEACEFUL. I met my savior! I met Amazing Grace! All because I had decided. I was READY for that shift.

It’s like that longtime saying - “When the student is READY the teacher will appear.”

I pulled the car over. I came to a stop and I soaked it in. I cried like a teething child, and as I did, these words changed my life - “Cause it's when you're in that valley you can see both sides more clearly.” I was longing for this! It was longing for me! It was LIGHT! It was PEACE! It was the break, I needed. This was indeed a Yummy Moment!

One of my all-time favorite adage reads - “judgement against the self is a mistake.” I interpret this to mean – it is okay to dip in the valley. It is just not cool to stay there. I was holding myself in contempt, and this had me stuck – blocking any chance of the LIGHT that would lead me out of the crossfire of pain into PEACE. I have since learned - LIGHT is immune to judgement. In the space of the LIGHT, there everything to see and nothing to judge.

I knew I was living from a limited set of beliefs for sometimes, that wasn’t serving me but it’s like I couldn’t shake it. I just did not allowed myself to use the valley experience to my advantage - to see both sides and all sides more clearly. Once I did, the LIGHT within got switched to the on position, and I slowly started dissolving the adhesive that had me glued and attached in the trenches of pain. The ability to truly see all sides, created a way out of the hell I had produced.

It felt as if I could fully breathe for the first time in a long time - the air moved through my nostril, lungs and entire body, like it never did before. I have come to know that life is painted with the energy you give it. It radiates - bigger, better and brighter when the LIGHTS are on and PEACE is present. To be able to breathe deliberately and with intent is PEACE at its finest.

So I made a declaration to myself - I decided for the rest of my life, PEACE would be at the center of all I do, and PEACE will be my purpose. The purpose of PEACE is fulfillment and the beauty and odor of PEACE is that of – LOVE, KINDNESS, JOY and EQUANIMITY. I wanted this. I wanted more.

PEACE is central to my life’s PURPOSE

What I know, that I know, that I know is - PEACE is deeply personal. It is an individual walk. It is an inward affair. It is not built on big moments and grand gestures; it is built within those gradual, tiny, one-step at a time footprint moments:

Those “valley” moments that requires you to breathe, go within your own being and feast on wisdom. Those “valley” moments that are heavy, uncertain, dark, frustrating and frightening, but you seek after the “righteousness” and “rightness” that only PEACE brings. Those moments when you do not have the answers, but you find it somehow to lean within to hear the whispers of that small still voice that echoes – I got you my child. “PEACE be still.”

PEACE cradles us! PEACE strengthens us! PEACE enlightens us! PEACE frees us! At our core, it sustains us. Wherever there is PEACE, there is LIGHT. And this I believe, clears the way for us to fully access Who We Are. It is how we cultivate, resurrect and revive LIFE into life. A peaceful path leads us to dance with life from the perspective of our own True Self.

In his book “Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self” Father Richard Rohr - talks about “The Face You Had Before You Were Born.” This paperback, explores some of the earnest questions I believe we all have - identity, spirituality, and meaning. I have to tell you - these words in this book hit me between the eyes in a powerful way. “The face we had before we were born” in essence, captures the naked Truth of our Divine make up; it is the natural aroma (when allowed) flavors and colors that bright LIGHT we project from within. This faceless, face is the Authentic Self. It is our True Nature. It is the TRUE SELF. It is the receptor of LIGHT. It is the stimulus that transmits signal through the sensory of thoughts, feelings and emotions. It is the birthplace of PEACE.

I have become acquainted with these lessons, just by hanging out in the LIGHT and walking along the trails of PEACE:

• LIGHT is a quality within awareness and awareness creates choice
• LIGHT gets activated by an intention
• LIGHT is the evidence of sight
• LIGHT, just like darkness servers a purpose; we just have to be willing to see the lessons
• LIGHT and darkness cannot coexists
• When you are in the LIGHT you cannot avoid being noticed
• You CANNOT know the wisdom and intelligence that lives within and in between the spaces of PEACE without dancing in the LIGHT
• Intention turns the LIGHT on, awareness keeps it on
• PEACE is as natural as the air we breathe
• PEACE is organic to the you and I
• PEACE is simple and clear
• PEACE is harmonious and supportive
• PEACE begins with clarity
• The way to PEACE is through the LIGHT
• To know PEACE is to know yourself
• We must arrive at a PEACEFUL place inside to know PEACE
• Freedom and PEACE is one of the same
• The True Self is that wholesome state of permanence within, the TRUE SOURCE of empowerment; it is pure, unchanged and unchangeable, it cannot be altered by anything that is external
• The True Self wears no face
• The True Self is clear unbounded awareness; it is the inner reservoir of WISDOM and INTELECT, it carries and holds the code to our natural state of fulfillment
• The True Self “KNOWNS” - it is clarity that lives in every moment; when we are in its sway, we know
• Access to the True Self requires living in the present moment
• We become stuck as a result of being unclear about our True Self and its function
• There is no habit that cannot be undone
• We have the POWER to change anything
• Feelings of brokenness serve as an indicator that something is off somewhere; it is life trying to get our attention
• I have stop working at changing; instead, I practice a constant opening up of myself to the LIGHT and change flows
• Worry is unnecessary baggage, it comes with needless suffering
• Stop trying so hard

Through my daily meditation and silent practices, I continue digging to uncover hindrances that threatens the beaming of my LIGHT, that would in turn, stifle and impede my natural state of PEACE. I am plowing out things that no longer serves me. Meditation has been my savior – it has shown me how to be softer and gentler with myself, the world around me and how to give myself permission to practice the art of loving, allowing and forgiveness. There is volume in the stillness, lingering here has taught me how to be at PEACE, no matter what’s going on around me. I am not entirely there, but I am better than I once was.

Today, my main focus is to live fully from my True Self; while practicing the gift of giving myself the approval to “see both sides and all side more clearly.” I resist leaning back and lamenting over the past, or projecting my energy into the future. What I REALLY know is – turning on my own LIGHT kindles and ignites the PEACE I deserve. I am in LOVE with the LIGHT and I am in LOVE with the PEACE it brings. It is my desire to continue to breathe consciously from the magnificent LIGHT I carry within. I naturally carry the LIGHT of PEACE. In this awareness, it feels like I am clothed in its majestic power. I find that I am sparkling in beautiful ways that others find to be attractive.
My biggest take away
The most important person to be at PEACE with, is myself, from within myself. The journey to this my friends, I called the anatomy of PEACE. It is the PEACE that heals, restores and informs all understanding.

Side note
The photo above was taken while landing into the Miami International Airport, at daybreak. I just had to take this shot; it captures GRACE and the beautiful blend of the unfolding of LIGHT into LIFE. Nothing could look more PEACEFUL! Nothing could look more DIVINE! I see, God!