A Moment of Peace

I stand on my patio with my hands touching the tree that grows nearby, and I pray. In this prayer, I welcome all the spirits of land, our ancestors, and our gods. I give them my blessing, and ask for Theirs in return.

For a moment, I pause in the hectic chaos that has become so many of our lives. In this moment, it’s just me, the tree, the wind, and the sounds of my fellow beings around me. In this moment there is peace.

I turn from the patio and head back inside … back to my normal, busy life but with a nugget of peace inside of me.

As I read the news, skim my Facebook feed, or just listen to the conversations around me, I am bombarded with chaos, with negativity, with the insanity that is the head of government right now. We live in a world where people seem to think that it’s okay to hate, to harm; that it’s okay to lie. This world where we are shocked when truth comes out of a President’s mouth; where were are almost immune to the news of a woman and her children getting murdered on the train; where stories of yet another shooting cross the news; where people are talking more about how the fires started than what they can do to help.

This is a crazy world we live in.

How do we stay sane? How do we not lose touch with our humanity, with our communities, with our world?

We have to carve out those moments of peace, those moments where we remember that we are not alone, where we can connect to something beyond ourselves. We need those moments to reset, to take a break from the crazy, to remember ourselves.

Hail to the Land, Sea, and Sky.
Hail to the Trees, birds, and beasts.
Hail to the spirits and people.
My Blessings to You and Yours,
May Your Blessings be with me and mine.

Find your moment of peace, and do not forget who you are.