image from worldpeacediet.com
There is only one place where peace
can be found:
within the human heart,
when one learns to be comfortable
inside one's skin
(which can take half a lifetime).
When one accepts herself and her own failings,
Compassion towards others increases.
We are all cracked vessels,
that whatever light
we can muster
shines through.
When one learns
the peaceful acceptance
of Whatever Comes,
one imagines, at least,
that she can accept death, too -
perhaps not others' death,
as easily,
but one's own.
Given so many are dying
all around us,
we know one day
our turn will surely come,
sometimes sooner
than one would wish.
I have watched people
pass through
the end of this life,
and enter the next.
And there is a holiness,
at the end,
that lights the room,
as the spirit makes its passage.
The eyes light up
with wonder,
a hand reaches out
towards whomever
is greeting them
and, as the spirit slips away,
what is left behind
is simply a vessel,
newly empty.
In believing that our souls go on,
that perhaps we have lived before
and will live again,
yes, therein lies
peace.
