tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71221244756978535982012-02-16T12:07:36.669-08:00lifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681969549136673035noreply@blogger.comBlogger11100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7122124475697853598.post-80837169056841902082009-10-26T15:36:00.000-07:002009-10-26T15:51:41.516-07:00October 26, 2009<br /><br />The world has not been easy for me lately, but evidently I'm still trying to keep my peace. That said, most of the time having peace in many situations has been really difficult struggle. Several times a week even I have it pointed out to me by Kara that I am often approaching issues with a kind of anger and temper. This is evident in all areas, from my difficult church relationships, to my schedule, to my driving. Its amazing today that I didn’t fly off the handle upon learning that someone, in a half-hour block of time, managed to walk into the St. Ignatius Chapel, grab my jacket and my red bike light, and steal them.<br /><br />The day has gone on now for some hours, and anger is still not something that I feel. Rather, I feel a sense of detachment, peace, contentment, and adjustment. I’ve guessed that because I arrived upon the surprise theft from having just been in prayer and connection to God, the whole matter turned out differently. I remember myself almost immediately accepting the fact that the items that were once mine were now gone; that someone else made a decision to make those things all the sudden their own. I then realized that these items went beyond the 2 things I saw missing, but I had also lost my phone and keys that were in my jacket pocket, which greatly upped the value of what was taken.<br /><br />But even with this additional loss, I still felt calm and adjusted myself to the fact that I would be dealing with the situation for the next few hours, rather than immediately proceeding to Stumptown. All the while, I was quite aware of the support that I had from Karen Kennell, who was there at the prayer with me that morning, and who supported me all morning. In a way, losing the things offered an opportunity for me to share a very real-life and connecting experience with Karen that morning, and I appreciated this. On an even bigger picture, the situation gave me an opportunity to approach a difficultly with peace, which was a major side-step from my usual recent reaction of frustration. And throughout the day, I’ve been re-assured by God and the people in the world that peace is not an inauthentic way to handle a situation. This time around, the peace has in some sense probably been the saving grace that has so far kept this event from pushing me into a whole deeper level of the depression I have been feeling for some number of weeks. And for this I am incredibly grateful in addition to my gratefulness for still maintaining such important possessions as my bike, place to live, job, and of course all the good people in my life.<br /><br />It is interesting that being peaceful enough to know that the best thing I could do with the situation on this cold and rainy Monday was to adjust, I feel like a lot of opportunity came out of an initially unfortunate event. I made the discovery that by not getting riled up, I was allowed the attention to see that there are gifts in every moment of life, even the bad ones.<br /><br />What would life look like if we could carry this level of vision not just for the moments after a good prayer, but carry this kind of perception of the world in every moment or our regular and often difficult lives? What would we additionally find in every day?<br /><br />-Brandon<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7122124475697853598-8083716905684190208?l=seattlebeginnings.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>lifehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10681969549136673035noreply@blogger.com1