Peacefully Engaged

Old 04-22-2014, 04:47 AM
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Ann
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Peacefully Engaged

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Peacefully engaged

Peace is not arrived at by merely doing nothing. On the contrary, peace is attained by doing substantive and significant things, and doing them without conflict.

That means living with purpose, with love, compassion, forgiveness and genuine tolerance. It means putting your very best into the effort while at the same time detaching your sense of self worth from the result.

Your life, your work and your whole world are all filled with conflicting interests. Yet that doesn’t mean you must handle them by fighting.

In fact, diverse and conflicting interests can absolutely be resolved in much more positive ways, and it happens every day. That is one of life’s great challenges, and working through the challenge produces great value.

Seek not merely to do significant things. Seek to achieve what you achieve with a peaceful heart, for that is true and sustainable achievement.

Be fully engaged in life while also being completely at peace with who you are. It is indeed a powerful and fulfilling combination.

— Ralph Marston
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Old 04-22-2014, 04:48 AM
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Ann
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I grew up in the times of protests for peace, the great hippy era where change was demanded by peace songs, peace rallies, and peaceful protests. It worked, although it often wasn’t as peaceful as it sounds.

I learned, in those times, to choose my battles, to fight for values and rights for everyone, and to let the little things go. Sometimes it was hard to choose, but today I find myself still choosing my battles.

I fought personally for women’s rights in the workplace, not by burning my bra but by doing a darn good job then threatening to go to the competitor if I wasn’t given the same pay and the same positions as offered my male counterparts. It worked. It worked for me and for many and eventually women got fair representation in politics and introduced laws for equality in the workplace.

It’s not perfect, not even today, but I learned that the best protest I could make was by example and by the choices I made to stand for my values and choose my battles wisely.

This reading today made me smile. We’ve come a long way baby!

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Old 04-22-2014, 05:03 AM
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You go girl!! lol

I grew up as the youngest of three and three is often a crowd. My mother used to tell the stories of how I learn to "hold my own" before I could walk. I never liked being pushed or ran over my older siblings and would push back.

She would says I was born fighter! Not always a good thing. It has taken a lot for me to learn how to pick my battles and learn which hill I wanted to live or die on. First rule was, never talk, type, or text when I was angry. Since anger had become my baseline emotion the past few years, I probably should have taken up knitting, lol.

Some bad habits take time to unlearn, but I am really learning how to enjoy peace again a lot more. I started to peel back the onion and learn what is under the anger and deal with the real feeling. Anger had become my self defense mechanism. In some way, it made feel protected from hurt when I was really only hurting myself....without even realizing it.

Thank you Ann for this post. It's great to start my day off with positive awareness.
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Old 04-22-2014, 05:12 AM
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Ann, you are still a good example to us. Thank you, for being you. and for sharing this. I hope we are never too old to learn, or to effect change.

This was a lovely by Marston. He is amazing. Win the fight by peaceful means. I like that.
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