I have adopted three words to define who I would like to be on a daily basis: Peaceful, Mindful, and Joyful.
This past Father’s Day, I failed miserably to live up to my word goals.
First, I got into an argument with my cousins about why baseball is a horrible sport for kids. I won’t tell you which side of the argument I was on for fear of retaliation, but let’s just say that I was not very PEACEFUL.
Then we went swimming. After trying to coax my 3 year old son to leave the shallow platform we had been sitting on for what seemed like hours, I exited the pool to dry off. While talking to some less narrow-minded cousins, I turned around to find my son at the bottom of the pool. When I dived in and saved him, he came up sputtering water. “Daddy, I was swimming!” he said with a smile. Not very MINDFUL to have almost let my son drown.
Of course, my wife wasn’t very pleased to hear about the incident. The stress from the weekend, the long drive, and the near-death experience set off a huge argument. It wasn’t very JOYFUL having a door slammed in my face.
The ironic part is that while I was getting ready to go to the party, I reminded myself to be peaceful, mindful, and joyful.
The one thing they don’t tell you about neuroplasticity, mindfulness, and peacekeeping is how frickin’ long it takes to make a change. But I can’t quit.
I remember setting goals to run 4 miles a day in order to make the varsity soccer team in high school. I also remember vowing to finish 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month. I still have 8,000 words to go and no varsity letter hanging at my parent’s house.
But this is different. I’m not trying to boost my ego or increase my income stream>brook>arroyo. I’m trying to bring peace into my life and my world. If I quit now, I will never have peace, not in my marriage, not in my mind, not in my heart.
Besides, once you get on the Peace Train, everything else seems TaylorSwifty.
What else am I going to do with my time if I’m not “working” for peace? Youtube, Facebook, trade stocks? What good will popularity, recognition, or money be without peace?
Like my blogger friend, KM, says, “things fall apart and come together again.” I’m sure Yusuf (Cat Stevens) has seen his share of crashed peace trains, but he continues to advocate and create peace. The same could be said about any peacemaker. The Dalai Lama has been in exile for over 50 years, yet he still strives for peace and freedom every day.
So I got up this morning and meditated on peace and compassion. And I will continue to practice peace until God says I’m done.
To Peace and my wife,
I will never leave you.
Love,
Kozo
Thank you for reading, sharing, and/or smiling.
Have you ever fallen off the peace train? How did you get back on? Please share.
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