“I know that we are in hellish times, but that the world is rich in peace and mercy and beauty.”
—Anne Lamott
For many years I volunteered my services as a therapist, chaplain, and bereavement group leader at hospice. The main regret I heard from both patients and bereaved persons was some version of, “I wish I’d been more aware of what I really wanted... I wish I’d paid more attention to those I love... I wish I’d lived my life rather than the one I thought was expected of me.” In other words, at the end of life, many people wished they had been more conscious about important aspects of their lives and relationships. Instead, many felt that they’d been swept along by external currents as easily as a leaf is swept downstream, and sorely regretted having lived by rote rather than by choice and design. One woman’s statement was particularly poignant. Holding my hand, Hilda whispered, “I’m dying before I’ve really been happy or ever really been myself.”
In my heart, I often thank Hilda for reminding me to remain conscious, choose to be me, and choose to be happy. Of course, no one feels happy all the time, but we can learn to make conscious choices that invite peace, harmony, and hope into our hearts and souls a majority of the time. To the well-known adage, “Anything worth doing is worth doing right,” I would add, “Anything worth doing is worth doing consciously.”
You may be wondering if we even have the right to grow hope and choose happiness when there is so much pain in the world. I suggest that it is precisely because there is so much pain in the world that we must grow hope and choose happiness. One of the most powerful ways we can affect the larger whole and help create peace is through generating positive feelings and attitudes and bringing light into the darkness within and without. Peace on Earth begins within individual hearts.
Excerpted from How to Stay Upbeat in a Beat Down World by Sue Patton Thoele. Available on Amazon.
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