Good Earthkeeping, by Tasha Halpert –
As a child I always wanted to keep the peace. Growing up in a combative household (with parents and siblings who often wrangled and shouted) that wasn’t easy. In addition, the hero tales of mythology as well as the fables and fairy tales I read were equally warlike. Then too the world around me was at war. I remember sending for a toy nurse’s kit from a radio program I listened to, thinking when I grew up I would tend the wounded. Once I married and had children, I did not allow them to fight. Arguments could be resolved peacefully. Fighting was not an option. And so it is with me today.
Recently, as Stephen started to tell me about the latest strife ridden news on the internet, I stopped him. “If there’s nothing I can do about it, I don’t want to hear or to think about it,” I told him. I didn’t need yet another piece of news about the disruptions, the discordance and the dismay that seems to be proliferating in every corner of our country. People are upset and rightly so. Yet if there is nothing I personally can do to change a situation, I don’t want to get tangled up in the current news about it. All that does is make me unhappy and nervous. If I am that way what good will it do anyone, especially me?
In the turmoil ridden world of today peace is elusive. While I think of myself as one who seeks to make peace, I am not one to march in protest. At one time in my life I did, and it was all very well, yet it didn’t accomplish much except to help me vent my feelings. I have a different attitude now. In seeking peace I try not to involve my thoughts in the discord that the media promotes on a daily basis. Little time or space seems to be given to whatever peaceful progress is being made toward a better world for us all, while much is given to sad and troublesome events. I do not need to hide from what goes on, yet I do not need to focus on it either.
Protesting is good for those who want to march; I wish them well. My energy needs to go toward efforts to cheer and comfort those I can reach with my writing or my voice. I am a great believer in blooming where one is planted and brightening the corner where we are. Thunderstorms rattle the atmosphere; lightning discharges energy; when the noise subsides it is time to go out into the garden to remove the weeds and to tend the flowers. Although I no longer have a garden I still consider myself to be a gardener.
I have come to see my life as a kind of garden. Where there are weeds – wild growth that has accumulated around my intended purposes – I need to pull them out and discard them. Where there is a need for watering I need to put myself in a place to nurture what needs nurturing. I do what is possible for me to do in the face of the disruption around me, making beauty to comfort the eye and heart, and encouraging what is good and helpful. I can do this only when there is peace in my own heart, and I maintain that peace as best I can.
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