“Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.”
― Thomas Merton
On September 21st, we will celebrate the International Day of Peace in San Miguel de Allende from 1PM to 5PM at Parque Juarez. You can find more information about this on Facebook at Camino de la Paz. It is truly a wonderful day of celebration for World Peace and is celebrated around the world. However, I’ve found that it takes sacrifice to make it real in our day to day lives.
For example, my husband, Michael, and I have found that by sitting on our terrace each evening watching the sunset and sharing our day with each other brings peace into our hearts and lives. The picture to the left is our view! Yet, in order to do this, we must sacrifice something and be willing to make it a committed practice. What about those emails that need to be answered or the dinner that needs to be prepared or the numerous phone calls that need to be made? Or, what about that favorite movie or that we’ve been wanting to watch? Or, the myriad responsibilities that need to be honored? We won’t have time to get everything done! And, yet, when we let those things go and honor our commitment to this precious time; peace comes and that is the peace that we can share with each other and our world on a daily basis. It matters.
You really can never change things by holding on to old habits or ways of being or doing things. One of the exercises that we give people in our Hero’s Journey Retreat is to think about what they are willing to sacrifice in order to achieve their intention. Sometimes they are stumped but then they begin to realize that in order to change their lives and live their intention; they need to sacrifice something and sometimes many things.
We invite the retreatants to take a look at their relationship to the people, places and things in their lives in order to gain some clarity on what needs to be sacrificed. It’s truly a great exercise for everyone and I invite you to try it.
For example, what about the “relationships” that don’t seem to work for you or that you have to “tolerate” in order to maintain? You might try to be smaller, quieter, less sensitive, less opinionated, talk more, adapt more, etc. etc. But, it still doesn’t work and you still feel unhappy with the relationship and with yourself. What if you changed your response to them? Are you willing to be YOU in that relationship and not shrink to make it work? Or, are you willing to sacrifice the relationship, if necessary, in order to find more peace in your life?
Or, what about the “places” that you frequent? Do they bring you satisfaction or joy or is it just a habit to go to these places? Can you sacrifice your habitual frequenting of these places in order to find more peace in your life?
Or, what about the “things” you have in your life? Do you really need to have a closet full of clothes that you don’t wear; just in case you might? Or, what about the thoughts or beliefs that don’t serve you? Can you sacrifice these things in order to find more peace in your life?
I do believe that it does take practice and sacrifice and commitment. Do you?
What are you willing to sacrifice in your life? I’m eager to hear back from you at docbeverly@aol.com.
