Into the Sunset

      Sitting on the sun kissed deserted beach, Theresa gazed out at the vast turquoise blue ocean that spread out before her and met the horizon.  Seagulls swooped down to the rolling waves, peppering the breeze with their melodious caws. The late afternoon sun warmed her face, the sand felt deliciously warm as she dug in her toes, and sifted through her fingertips. Here she felt at peace, in the isolation with only the sounds of the ocean and the seagull’s symphony to lull her. Here she could almost ignore the horrendous pain that overwhelmed her from the damn cancer that was quickly consuming her body and extinguishing her life force. This is where she wanted to be, forever.  

       Four weeks later, with her eyes filled with tearful determination; her daughter spread Theresa’s ashes to the wind as a beautiful orange sun set into the horizon. 

 “Goodbye Mama, I will love you forever and can’t wait until we are together again.” 

    With a heavy heart, Melissa walked slowly back up the beach determined never to forget her mother’s gentle soul and bubbly laugh, at peace with the knowledge that she had fulfilled her mother’s final wishes.

 This was written for the first day of the Write Tribe Festival of Words 3.  We were to write a fictional story using only 9 sentences.

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Finding Inner Peace

     In the midst of turmoil and fear, when life is at its lowest point I find inner peace through prayer.  When push comes to shove I reach for my bible for it holds all the answers of the universe within its pages.

     I retreat into a book.  I write.  I create.  I knit.  I crochet.  Sometimes I take a walk into the silence.  Sometimes I crank my favorite music and within the melodies and rollicking rhythms I find peace.  Other times I write allowing the words to flow from my fingertips as quickly as my mind can formulate them.  My words make sense of it all even when they ramble and make little sense at all in context.

 

    Although having those you hold most dear close in times of turmoil helps for moral support,   I believe true inner peace comes from within and from faith, hope, and trust in G0d.

Peace

     I am big on keeping the peace.  If it means that I never talk to you again and avoid you like the plague to keep the peace, so be it.  I am not the young hot head of my youth.  I have mellowed with age and somewhere along the way grew a longer fuse.  Life is simply too short to go looking for trouble, so I strive to keep the peace and avoid it at all costs. 

      In preparation for writing this prompt I checked out some peace quotes that were uttered by the famous because when I sat down and really thought about peace I found myself singing “Silent Night”.  You know “Sleep in heavenly peace!”  I used to sing this as a lullaby to each of my kids when they were little.  When you think about it, unless you are having a scary nightmare where some evil a$$ is chasing you with a hatchet and pushing you off a cliff to your impending death, when you are sleeping you are at peace.  Being a stay at home mom of two I can testify that when the natives are restless it is hard to keep the peace.  The only way for me to keep my sanity is enforce the peace.  I have a special case of Whoop A$$ for just those occasions and I am not afraid to use it.  My kids know not to go there.

       Albert Einstein once said “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”  He was saying a mouthful there.  My son demands understanding.  He is determined to get his point across no matter how loud he has to be to achieve it.  He needs more than the evil eye to get the message.  However, he is a tricky bird because if you don’t give some acknowledgement that you sympathize with his point of view you will get absolutely no where.  With my daughter, I only have ever had to go ballistic once or twice and she knows not to go there.  A dirty look in her direction does the trick every time.

         Buddha once said “Peace comes from within.  Do not seek it without.”  I don’t think this means you have to meditate to find peace.  I just think it means you have to be content with what you have in life, where you are at, and what you are doing.  I am finally at a place where I am happy to be content with what I have, where I am, and with what I am doing.  Why be anything but?   



          My favorite quote of all came from Mother Theresa who said “Peace begins with a smile.”  How can anyone be at odds with someone who is grinning like an idiot at them?  Smiles make me feel all warm and cozy inside.  A smile is the best gift you can give to someone else.  Whether people like it or not, they usually get my big toothy grin.  Well in most circumstances.  When I am pi$$ED to the teeth, you may just get the bird. After all, if I am mad, you only deserve half of the peace sign.   The best thing I got out of 6 years of torture and hell at the hands of my orthodontist was my grin and I am not afraid to use it either.  My giggle came later when I adopted that half past give a $hit outlook on life.  It was at that point that I quit taking things so seriously. I find peace by avoiding the habitual drama queens and $hit stirrers.  If that is what you are all about, it won’t take me long to figure it out.  Once or twice, I may just wonder who exactly pi$$ed in your Wheaties, and be so bold to ask you giving you the benefit of the doubt.     I am at peace in my life.  I no longer let things out of my control upset me for long.  There is just no point.

         I have adopted the motto of “Don’t worry, be happy!”  If everyone would do that and share the love, there would be a lot more peace going on around the world until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker‘s wife.