The Lion With The Lamb

image: Sissy and Usako, martha0stout’s phone

Pets will lie down

Even should they disagree

At what is allowed.

Cat loves to cuddle

Especially with a friend.

 

This little poem is for the revisit of Sreejit’s Dungeon Prompt: Peace. Also, my cat, Usako loves to cuddle. She’ll cuddle with anyone once she’s gotten used to you. Sissy’s like that too except Sissy doesn’t like fights at all. Usako will pick on my sister’s cat, Iris. This upsets Sissy and so she’ll go rushing over. She doesn’t bark or nip or anything, but a large animal showing up? That sends Usako scampering. They don’t always get along, my cat and my dog, but when they want to cuddle, they’re both at peace.

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Just Breathe

Take a moment to stop and breathe.

Did it work?

Were you able to take a full moment where nothing was happening within you save for the breath entering and leaving through your body and mind?

I didn’t think so.

It is a tall order to try, much less succeed. It is possible, there are countless people throughout time and all over the world who have been able to accomplish it. But is it something that everyone can accomplish the same exact way?

I think not.

Breathing, meditating, taking a moment to really calm down and let yourself just flow within your own mind, is something that is done differently and means something different to each and every person. The countless combinations that are the human mind and soul make it so. There are those that have similar enough personalities and wants and needs and desires that have to accomplish this differently enough and then there are those who couldn’t be more different who find the same comfort and balance from the same exercise or practice.

For myself, I think that the moment where I can ‘go with the flow’ of my own mind, my own heart, is when I am most content with who I am. When I have accepted my life and have decided to work with it and through it rather than needing to ignore something within it. When I am with my family, whether it is all of them or just one or any combination of the above that I am most at peace.

Listening to my eldest nephews play in the backyard, carefree and innocent with the world. Knowing that each has already been touched by something that I would never wish to happen to even my greatest enemy and yet knowing that they are still there, trying to live their lives and find their own joy, even if it is only for the moment.

Watching my eldest niece curl up with a good book, cat in her lap purring in contentment as she slowly turns page after page of whatever had caught her fancy. Or even leaning back against the dying tree in our backyard with a notebook and pencil in hand, drawing out the pictures and scenes in her mind using the knowledge she has gained from the various classes and practices as well as incorporating and using her own style of drawing.

Attending the birthday party of the current youngest of my extended family and watching him enjoy ripping into the wrapping paper of the presents around him while the other children lean forward in anticipation of what their newly turned two-year-old cousin has received. The big smile on his face as I hold him up to blow out the candles of the basketball-shaped gingerbread cake his mother has made from scratch.

Having to run outside to stop the younger nieces and nephews from digging up the stakes holding the fence on the hill in place and pulling on the hibernating branches of the blueberry bush. Finding out that a small amount of hand-sanitizer can make more mud than you’d think possible even on a dry and clear day.

Watching as my mother gathers her granddaughters around for various sewing projects and lessons as each of them and any friends they have brought soak up the attention and the joy on their faces as they present their mothers with the first sampling of their labors. The pride on their faces when they see their mothers using the gifts every day.

There are too many moments where I find myself at peace with my life, being able to ‘move with the flow’ of my own spirit to write down, but knowing that they are there, waiting inside of me to be brought forth, helps to soothe me during times of grief and moments where what little control I have is lost for uncountable minutes.

Taking a moment to just breathe and be.

---

Written for this week’s DungeonPrompts: http://theseekersdungeon.com/2014/05/01/dungeon-prompts-season-2-week-17-writing-in-the-flow/

The First Law – Day Six

Only through faith can I give up control.

Because I have hope, I don’t have to know.

Ease in my thoughts come through constant prayer.

Yes I will listen and prepare.

---

Written in part as a reaction to my sitting through General Conference today, but also because today is the next day of NaPoWriMo (http://www.napowrimo.net/2014/04/day-six-2/).

Peaceful Contemplation – Day Five

Sitting here I fold my arms rev’rently.

Thinking of what I have learned quietly.

Knowing that my savior looks down lovingly.

He cares for me and all of my family, together we

Know that it is for us He will think.

It was us He continually thought of

When bowed with trials he said “I pray for thee.”

 

Forever will I hold Him in my heart rev’rently

Because I know that he will hold me quietly

And brush my tears away softly.

Of peace and joy and forgiveness will He sing.

“Not just my father sent me, but our

Father who sent this melody.”

 

Together now let us feel rev’rently

And know that He loves us quietly.

As a family we will love Him humbly

For we will not live just now.

There is a future for we

Know that eternal life is something for which we pray.

 

His hands forever will let

Us hold in His own; “Thy

Joy in my words are holy.”

He will say as He wraps around us His Spirit.

For eternity our family will dwell,

Together with Him in

A world that brings peace to our hearts.

Not just tomorrow and yesterday, but today.

---

From the following song:

Reverently, Quietly 

by Clara W. McMaster

Rev’rently, quietly, lovingly we think of thee;

Rev’rently, quietly, softly sing our melody.

Rev’rently, quietly, humbly now we pray,

Let thy Holy Spirit dwell in our hearts today.

Written for today’s prompt for NaPoWriMo (http://www.napowrimo.net/2014/04/day-five/) and because I’m listening to General Conference today and tomorrow. I felt that I should use a song from the Primary Children’s Songbook (https://www.lds.org/music/library/childrens-songbook?lang=eng).

My Path – Day Four

Sitting here alone,

I wonder where I’ll go.

I’m forever lost.

 

I don’t know

What I’m suppose to do.

I chose this.

 

My dark path

Will take me far into

Darkness, always alone.

 

Black space envelops

And yet I feel safe

Here, without distractions.

 

I thought wrong.

I wasn’t always alone here.

You where there.

 

You were with

Me, holding my shaking hand

Giving me hope.

 

My loving Lord.

My eternal Friend, within and

Without my heart.

---

Written for today’s NaPoWriMo post (http://www.napowrimo.net/2014/04/day-four-2/) but also for FreeWriteFriday (http://kellieelmore.com/2014/04/04/fwf-free-write-friday/) which is a prompt that is dear to my heart.

Yesterday afternoon was very trying and though for a moment I felt alone, I knew in my heart that I was simply being carried.

Compassion Through Technology

As you’re sitting at your computer or holding your phone or reading this on a tablet or eReader pretending to be a tablet (you know they are, I know they are, the eReader knows they are), are you thinking about the technology that you’re using? What all are you using it for? What does it mean to you that you can talk to your family wherever you and they are provided that they also have access to the same technology that you’re currently using?

I know that I didn’t often think about the technology that I use daily and just what it means. There are times that I have:

-being able to call 911 for my mother when she had a stroke

-keeping in contact with family when they are all scattered throughout the States doing something with their lives

-being able to attend college even though I’m only awake at night for a few years

-knowing that my niece’s eye was saved from infection because of medical technology that didn’t exist when I was her age at the time

But I don’t think about these things often. I just plop down on the sofa and pull up my laptop to surf through the internet in a way that I couldn’t when I was a teen.

It’s because of this surfing that I do now as an adult that I came across a use for technology that combines several of the things that I only sometimes think about.

A young woman came to the United States with her new husband last year in 2013. She was smart and educated and was looking to further her education in Minnesota. She wasn’t able to do that, but it is what happened after she was admitted into the hospital that really made me think about the technology that I take for granted every single day.

This young woman, Sanaz Nezami was sent to the hospital with severe head injuries and due to severe swelling of her brain there was no blood flow in her brain. Her family lived in Iran and they would never be able to make it through all the red tape in order to make it over in time for her funeral, much less be able to visit her in the hospital. The hospital staff were able to set up a laptop with a webcam in her room to make it possible for her family to keep tabs on her and to see her.

This isn’t something you think of for use with our technology unless it’s dealing with business or the military. Everyone involved were civilians and/or hospital staff. It was a simple laptop to laptop connection that is easily setup using devices bought at a Wal-mart.

I have heard of families being able to attend a wedding via the web, but have never seen a family from so far away be able to keep eyes on their daughter/sister/cousin/friend who was in the hospital and dying. The staff at the hospital would make sure to talk not only with the patient who was never able to respond but with her family at the same time and complete requests for said family so that their daughter/sister/cousin/friend knew she was loved even as she was dying and unable to see or react or possibly even hear for herself. She would hopefully be able to feel the fingers that brushed back her hair and placed a gentle kiss on her brow before she died.

Source:

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=157&sid=28203588&title=nurses-family-bond-online-as-iranian-dies-in-us

Snowstorm Peace

Gently flowing down,

Fluffy and soft and moving from slow to fast.

Tree limbs are lined,

But instead of skeletal looking,

They are blurred along the edges softly.

But underneath the gentle facade

Icy sheets await.

Death has never looked so quiet and peaceful.

I Don’t Deserve This

How could this happen to me?

I made my mistakes

Got no where to run

The night moves on.

I’m lost and alone and I don’t know who these people are. They are all around me and they seem to know me, but I don’t know them.

I’m lost and alone and I’m afraid at first. These people move around me and close to me in a way that is frightening.

I’m lost and alone, but I’m no longer afraid. There is a young boy who takes me hand and leads me away.

I’m lost, but not alone, because this boy exudes a sense of peace as he sits me down and carefully puts his arms around me. His hug makes me cry, but from nothing but love.

I’m lost, but not alone because I can feel that I am loved. My companion is familiar, but a stranger at the same time.

I’m lost, but not alone and I know I have done nothing to deserve this. Unconditional love given in response to fear melts my heart and fills me with joy.

I’m lost, but not alone because the boy next to me lives what I know. Real family will love you no matter what conditions or problems you have.

—–

Written for this week’s Trifecta challenge: http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.com/2013/11/trifecta-week-104.html

Somehow, this makes sense to me

Peace, according to A Student’s Dictionary, means 1)a period of harmony among nations when there is no war and 2) a calm ordered condition. It is believed that peace is a derivative of the Latin word pax meaning “freedom from civil disorder.” It is also used as a farewell in many countries of the world especially in death (rest in peace).

There are many definitions or beliefs about peace and what it means to the world as a whole as well as to an individual. I was going to write more about it in that context, but the more I sit and listen to the sounds in my own home, the more I realize that peace isn’t something that can really be studied. The idea of peace and the history behind its use throughout the world can be studied. It has been in the past, it is being done in the present and I have little doubt that it will continue to be done far into the future. Mankind is curious and we want to know things; I seriously doubt that will change on its own.

But I also believe that there are some things that can’t really be studied and can’t really be measured. That doesn’t mean I don’t believe that they exist, just that humankind just isn’t able to measure them.

It puts me in mind of Terry Pratchett’s The Hogfather. During the course of the book (though I’m more familiar with the movie adaption) they are trying to find out why a ‘mythical’ creature has gone missing and new ones are being created. What the plot in the movie or book isn’t what I’m thinking about, though. What I’m thinking about is a conversation between Death and Susan near the end of the movie/book:

AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THELITTLE LIES.

“So we can believe the big ones?”

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

“They’re not the same at all!”

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THENSHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME…SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

“Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point—”

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

I believe that peace is something that you have to find for yourself and create around you in order for it to be real. In the end, only you can really know if what you have found is peace for you. you can offer to share it with another, but even then, it is your peace and not their’s that is being spoken about. While they might be able to find rest in your peace for a time, until they are able to find and keep some of their own peace inside, it will ultimately leave them once they have left you.

Peace isn’t an absence of something, not for me. It is being filled with the knowledge that I’m not alone here on Earth. I have Someone with me at all times that loves me even when I screw up so badly, no one else will even look at me. It is knowing that there are others like me who feel the same way or at least close enough to know what I’m talking about.

It is being in a home with my family all around me, maybe some of them aren’t in the same room or even doing the same thing together, but they are there. They are my family and I love them and I know that they love me. We may not always like one another, but liking someone and loving them isn’t the same thing. I’d go into that, but we’re not talking about that at the moment, we’re talking about peace. Still, I needed to mention it because in my mind peace and love are intrinsically linked. You cannot have one without having the other.

I know peace and I know chaos. I know that you cannot have one without having experienced the other at some point in time. How would you recognize it if you hadn’t been able to experience its counterpart? A lot like knowing the difference between sunlight and moonlight.

On a lighter note, peace is also that feeling you have when a fussy baby FINALLY lays down for their nap. That nap doesn’t have to be overly long, just long enough for you to breath.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett%27s_Hogfather

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/583655-hogfather

This was written for this week’s Dungeon prompt: http://theseekersdungeon.com/2013/10/24/dungeon-prompts-week-11-peace-just-a-word-what-does-it-mean-to-you/

Be Still and Know

I’m lost in this day and age of now, now, now.

There is no wait, there is no rest.

Patience is like endurance, it is a thing of the past.

Where do I go to find peace?

Peace is not something that you can buy or sell,

It’s value can never be determined and yet it is priceless.

Where do you find it, this peace that makes life worthwhile?

Do you retire to the wilderness, making nature your tabernacle?

Do you enter a chapel and listen to the hymns of an organ or piano?

Do you retreat to your art, music or writing?

Maybe it is finding the beauty in another’s work that brings you peace.

For myself, I find it in quiet prayer and contemplation,

Safe in the knowledge that I am not alone in this life.

But have Another who is always looking out for me,

Even when I cannot see Him myself.

Peace fills my heart and calms my mind.

I know that there is a Plan for me, but that I also have choices in it.

This life is not for rushing and not for idle chatter,

Though those too have their place.

Refuge is something that I can find and carry with me,

But it will need renewal in order to remain,

Renewal I can find in my study of my faith.

http://theseekersdungeon.com/2013/10/10/dungeon-prompts-week-9-seeking-refuge/