Joy is an act of Bravery

Making peace with the world is an ongoing pursuit.

It is a battle of understanding. Denial pushes pain from consciousness, but only truth can transform the hurt into love for everything.

As I hold my pain in my arms, I feel the warm hum of the earth as love grows through my pain, like flowers find their way through cracked sidewalks.

And now, every person I meet, I see with new eyes- with new understanding; with deeper listening to their silent struggle- to remain at peace with life, at peace with themselves.

When we lie, the lie is more poisonous to ourselves than anyone; when we betray others, we so much more betray ourselves. Peace must be made between the places within oneself that, self-inflicted, have been torn apart.

The soul begs, go and listen deeper, and wake up.

Truth surrounds us and seeps into our false beliefs, our false defenses, and gently strips away our misconceptions.

This, it speaks softly, is your true self. No seperation between self and other. All beings, all atoms, visible and not, are interwoven into one Ecosystem- the Allness, the soul of life.

When we practice deep understanding, there is no need to forgive. We begin to see that all beings create goodness as well as they’re able, as well as they can understand at a time. All beings respond to goodness the same way, moving toward it like moths to light.

Healing comes rushing in when we wake up from our hibernation of solitude, and breathe deeper, filling unused parts of the lungs, the whole body reconnecting at last.

We are all awakening to the same familiar struggle- the longing, the need that never dies-we are one community, and the only pain is caused by separation.