peace and quiet

21^st Sept 2011 is International Day of Peace. http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/  It is a peace day with an opportunity for individuals, organisations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date.

Thinking about this event I thought about the word ‘peace’. A very emotive word for some people. 

We talk about ‘wanting some peace and quiet’ in our lives. I wonder is peace an easily defined measure?   I have known people who say ‘I’m just so busy, how can I have time for peace?’ It’s a great question. It requires the questioner to re-think what their definition of ‘busy’ is. I would suggest that it takes only a small change of attitude to see something in a different light. It may be acceptance that being busy doesn’t have to mean being without peace. When you get joy from seeing your child take their first steps (and not having had more than 3 hours peace yourself) you may get a peaceful and happy feeling from seeing that wonderful moment.  

There are things you could change to create small amounts of peace in your own life. Start small is my advice.  It might be in that moment when you are about to go into a difficult meeting. You take three deep breaths to settle yourself before pushing open the door and venturing in.  You’ve given yourself time to gain composure and increased your oxygen levels. It may not be the sort of ‘peace’ that lying on a warm beach reading a book might give you, but it is a good start! You can begin to stitch together these individual and brief moments so that bit by bit, piece by piece (excuse the pun) it starts to build up a small reserve of ‘peace’ for you.  

On the 'quiet' of 'peace and quiet', I do wonder where all that ‘quiet’ has been allowed to slip away to. There’s the clutter of tangible and non-tangible things.  The sound of the TV or radio playing in the background, the noise of traffic, the hum or rattle of the fridge, the constancy and interruption of the internet and social media, the clicking of a kettle or the whirr of a fan or air conditioning. Our brains and bodies are bombarded with the clutter of the modern world.

So when you get home and usually sit huddled in front of the computer, with all the distraction and noise that prevents true ‘peace and quiet’ to restore the mind and the body, maybe you’ll instead give yourself a few moments of quiet to think about things of importance to you.  

You could start by sitting in a quiet room in your home, think back over the day and give yourself credit for what has gone well or learn what you may do differently.  Or perhaps tune in to the sound of rain on the window, observe nature outside or watch the clouds give way to blue sky.  Get the kids off to bed and run yourself a warm bath and relax till your fingers turn to prunes*. (*That’s still ‘peace’ for some people I know too!) 

I'm making some time to think about peace in the world tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. Anything that provides a feeling of ‘peace and quiet’, however brief, is good in my book.