Your very own piece of the great puzzle

"However progress is not over. Great progress has taken place in this third phase of my life, but it's as though the central figure of the jigsaw puzzle of your life is complete and clear and unchanging, and around the edges other pieces keep fitting in. There is always a growing edge, but the progress is harmonious. There is a feeling of always being surrounded by all of the good things, like love and peace and joy. It seems like a protective surrounding, and there is an unshakeableness within which takes you through any situation you may need to face.

The world may look at you and believe that you are facing great problems, but always there are the inner resources to easily overcome these problems. Nothing seems difficult. There is a calmness and a serenity and unhurriedness - no more striving or straining about anything. Life is full and life is good, but life is nevermore overcrowded. That's a very important thing I've learned: If your life is in harmony with your part in the Life Pattern, and if you are obedient to the laws which govern this universe, then your life is full and good but not overcrowded. If it is overcrowded, you are doing more than is right for you to do, more than is your job to do in the total scheme of things."

~ Peace Pilgrim

Wow, this coming from a woman who after more than fifteen years of spiritual preparedness decided to trust the universe to such an extent that she would walk across the country, by herself in her middle years of her life, with no money, no possessions depending solely on the free will kindness of others for food. All in order to spread her message of peace. I'll leave her story to your reading pleasure. :)

I am moved by her clear message and I find it similar to that of many others throughout the ages who have reached a certain spiritual peak. Once it dawns on us and our ego that we are not the center of the universe, that we are but one, precious, piece of a larger puzzle, and that we each have energy that must vibrate in the fullness of its tone, to make the universal symphony complete, we come to a place of peace, a space that exudes protection, purpose and a general sense that all is right with the world and its design.

I've wanted to hold onto that calm (we all are born with) all of my life but something happened along the way - as with all of us.

The Peace Pilgim has so eloquently explained that, for her, retrieving our individual singularity of purpose repels overcrowding in every aspect of our lives (our thoughts, the wrong people, possessions, overwrought schedules). If we've bought into the lie that chasing money, having a house filled to the brim with cluttered possessions - that our deepest selves can not ever truly value - we will never find happiness. If we are filled with anxiety, running the hampster wheel within the rat race- never knowing if we are coming and going, and never having time for one moment of feeling at peace and in quiet with our thoughts, we are most probably out of sync with our piece of the puzzle. In our of ignorance of truth, we have designed our lives around those components that other miserable people submit to and have pushed on us as the status quo or normal.

We watch life pass us by without ever having known the taste of its sweeter berries. So many of us are foreigners to ourselves and our innate values. Because of this, we will never know the life the Peace Pilgrim, and a few others, have spoken of; surrounded by calmness, serenity and unhurriedness. But such a life is our birthright, my friends, it really is.

Hmmm, how dare I utter such profanity, such crazy, rebellious nonsense! Isn't that what you'll be told or have been told when you question any aspect of the status quo or look too deeply into the message contained within the blaring billboards and marketers commercials hocking their fabricated wares (e.g. the reality they want you to buy)?

I say, let's stand still, get quiet, think a little, get to know ourselves, and then promptly simplify!

We deserve it.