Making Peace...A Reconciliation Meditation (5/1/2006)

Making Peace...A Reconciliation Meditation (5/1/2006)

This past weekend, while struggling with an issue that is a great source of irritation in my life, I decided that I needed help working through my feelings. I am very cognizant of my feelings and my passions in this particular matter. I also understand that these exact feelings are the ones that may be standing in the way of clarity, causing my actions to be less than wise.

I again found myself wallowing in a conundrum. How do I keep my passion for justice and socially acceptable behavior without succumbing to outrage? Can I maintain strong opinions, and stand up for what I believe in, yet still promote harmony? I know that this turmoil I am feeling is anything but healthy, but how do I balance my beliefs and the differences and extremes that others force into my life?

In an attempt to quite my mind, I picked up a magazine that lay beside the couch. Randomly, paged through it, not really absorbing anything as my mind was still reeling. Iwas flushed with irritation.

I smile now to think that it just happened that I came to focus my attention on an article entitled, MAKE PEACE. I still have those moments of disbelief, but really, RANDOM should never be in our vocabulary. We are given what we need when we need it. I don't believe there are RANDOM acts - but that is a whole other topic! I better focus here before I get way off track....

This article was PERFECT for the feeling I was encountering and the frustration that I was drowning in. The article helped describe how to restore the sacred to your thought process. How? Simply be means of RECONCILIATION.

Reconciliation means to restore to compatibility or harmony or to make consistent or congruent. That sounds more intense than it really is. The idea is quite simple and very calming. When you practice reconciliation in your life, you accept that in each moment or experience there are differences, some painful even. No doubt, there will be polarities between you and others and in many aspects of your life. However, rather than allowing your heart to become closed to the other, you must continually seek to align your mind and heart to include and accept them just as they are.

That concept will enable you to stay in the practice of the here - now. Practicing reconciliation is the softening of your heart to accept this moment and whatever it may contain, just as it is. This intention is the wish to be connected to the present moment despite any differences, and to find harmony there.

Easier said than done? YES! But, it is a starting point for me to work on freeing my heart, and likewise working toward loving kindness and an unencumbered heart. Wouldn't that be gloriously freeing to my spirit!?!

So, it is with an open heart that I am willing to continually try and reconcile, not clinging to my views, but opening my mind to accept and RESPECT the ideas and beliefs of others. This I will do because I expect it from others.

May I be reconciled....Wishing all beings everywhere can find reconciliation.