faoi shíocháin

Age of Aquarius

2010-11-18T09:30:00.001-08:00

Lady Gaga Spreading The Peace

2010-09-23T10:06:00.001-07:00

Peace by ~purinsesu-akisame on deviant ART

Peace at the Portland Maine Children's Museum

2010-08-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

My Only Word on the BP Crisis... so far...

2010-07-16T09:47:00.000-07:00

I truly believe that when you continuously discuss something that is negative you only perpetuate the problem. Instead of talking about how horrific the BP oil spill is I want to know how it is being worked on. What is helping clean it up? Who are the heroes in the gulf right now? And what progress are we making?

Communication

2010-07-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

I think one of the biggest things to affect most people's sense of peace is lack of communication. How often do we get riled up over something someone said only to discover it wasn't what they meant? Or to discover they spoke before they thought about it and regret saying it?

Because of my class on Behavioral Health that I recently took communication has been on the forefront of my mind, and because of a few different family-related issues in the last week it's been even stronger today. So here are a few tips on making sure your communication skills don't disrupt the peace:

-Make "I" statements. You may WANT to say, "You make me feel like crap because you're always insulting me!" but that puts people on the defensive. Use "I" statements. "I feel badly about myself when you use those words to describe me". You may be SHOCKED at how much of a difference this can make in any conversation.

-Remember that negative feedback isn't an insult, it's a way to improve your already awesome self!

-Remember all the different kinds of communication. When you are standing in front of someone having a conversation more than just your words are coming across; your body language, your tone, your eyes darting to the mini skirt behind them.

-Remember when using written word that there is NOT another method of communication. ALL they have is your words! They may put their own tone to anything you say.

-When you are forced to approach something negative with someone try a couple of positives first. "I love how creative you are, and I really love these pillows but I'm not big on the neon orange for the walls! Maybe we could paint the room a more neutral color?"

-And last but not least... Try to get the whole story! Gather all the information you can before you even broach that uncomfortable topic with someone!

Peace

2010-03-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to record a moment of peace. A relaxing podcast, a cup of coffee, my beautiful girl. A beautiful morning. A moment of peace.

Home

2010-01-31T16:38:00.000-08:00

I have had the day off today. I skipped out to the store long enough to pick up some flour so I could bake. I had chicken stew going in the slow cooker, and I made two kinds of bread. We spent the day laughing, kissing, loving each other's company and the calm of our home.

I feel as though I can't possibly express just how calm my life is. Just how perfectly peaceful it is. I have to work tomorrow and I have such a beautiful sense of peace while at home that I am already dreading work. Again, not because it isn't a good job... but because of the peace. At work there are these flourescent lights that scream through my brain. The noise. The chaos. My coworker's stress. Life here is... so different.

So perfect.

So peaceful. I wish I could lock myself in the calm and peace of today and never leave it...

Why I Never Watch The News...

2010-01-29T15:17:00.000-08:00

A friend posted a link on facebook today to a really sad story about child slavery in Haiti. It was... horribly depressing.

Mother Theresa was quoted as saying "I was once asked why I don't participate in anti-war demonstrations. I said that I will never do that, but as soon as you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there."

I don't focus energy on war, depression, economic recession, etc because I believe very strongly that this only perpetuates the problem. That doesn't mean that there isn't a place for knowledge of the situations, and overall I do keep up on what is going on in the world, but I don't watch the news. News programs are just as much for entertainment as the rest of television is. The news has a way of taking a small situation and making it sound huge. I have seen this first hand in dealing with the various wildlife rescues I work with. I have been there for a situation only to, a week later, see it blown out of proportion on the news.

Not only that but when you watch the news the most tragic current situation is repeated. Over. And Over. Before each commercial break. In between stories. They just keep going back to it.

How many times have you heard the statistics about it? People who watch the news regularly are more likely to suffer from depression.

Instead of focusing on the tragic, focus on the solution. Instead of focusing on stopping war, focus on bringing peace. Instead of focusing on the horrible earthquake, focus on help for the people that are affected by it.

I Lack Peace

2010-01-14T07:25:00.000-08:00

I have found that I go through days of pure peace, feeling totally calm. And then I go to work. I have a great job. It is fun, it is creative, and I couldn't ask for better coworkers... but it is also heartless. It is sales. It is material. It is driven by money. Not the company I work for, because they are good, too. The guys who run it are real people, not just heartless suits. And I actually like them. It's the industry. It is retail. No matter how good the company is, it still boils down to greed.

When I am at home I have a sense of peace like nothing I have ever known. And it only makes the work environment that much harder to deal with. The bright lights, the noise, the hard floors, the dust. The customers. The force that drives each day.

And so I have done some examination of my life. Some introspective work. And I think my peace comes through education. I am finally ready to go back to school. Every year I go through a phase of this, I think about it. I yearn for education. I miss the notebooks, the papers, the homework even. It has been nearly 8 years since I graduated high school. I swore when I did that I would go to college one day. I am ready. This is the year.

By this fall semester I want to be going to the Community College to get my core classes out of the way and begin the next step in my life...

Peace Through Art by ~imgnepc on deviant ART

When Life is Peaceful

2010-01-09T05:43:00.001-08:00

I love waking up in the morning.

I love my morning coffee.

I even love the view out my kitchen window.

I love flipping through my tarot cards.

I love kissing her.

I love music.

I love my guitar.

I love painting.

I love life.

I am...

2009-12-30T06:46:00.000-08:00

...at peace...

I am at peace with who I am.

I am at peace with my place in the world.

I am at peace with my relationships with those around me.

I am at peace with my art.

I am at peace with my confidence.

I am at peace with the decisions I've made that have brought me to this place in my life.

I am strong.

I am powerful.

I will change the world...
one day at a time.

And those that try to stand in my way... those that attempt to send me their negative energy... those that upset my family, my loved ones...

They don't matter. Not today. Not ever.

Because my family is my life. My world is peaceful. And no one will destroy that.

Grandparents

2009-12-26T05:15:00.000-08:00

I've written so many times over the years about my grandmother, and now I find myself writing again... My paternal grandmother passed away on January 6th, 2005, and so we are approaching the anniversary of her death. She was my rock in this world. She was the one person I knew would always love me. That's not to say I'm not loved by my parents, but my grandmother and I had a connection. We were so similar in so many ways. People that knew her still point out just how much I am like her. And hearing I am like my grandmother... that is the greatest compliment I could ever receive.

My grandmother's name was Vesta. Vesta was the Roman Goddess of hearth, home and family. That's what every grandmother should be to her grandchildren. Home and Family. I strive to be that for everyone, especially my girlfriend's daughters, their children, and my siblings and nieces and nephews. I don't have my own children, but I have family. My home has an open door to those in need of a hug, a meal, a shoulder. I take care of those around me.

My grandmother's cousin lives near me. She's a sweet older woman who is really into scrapbooking and geneology and such, and she brings me photos of my grandmother and things she finds relating to my grandmother all the time. She's been trying to get me to go to her house for years now and go through photo albums with her. This year I finally made it over there for a few minutes, and brought her some bread for Christmas. I wish I had made it there sooner but these things happen as they should. She was so flustered that I had finally shown up that she couldn't find the article she wanted to find for me, but two days later she brought the article into the store I work in and gave it to me.

It's a newspaper article from December 2003 about my grandmother. It's an interview. It's my grandmother's life written down, in her own words. It brought tears to my eyes. It was like she had found a way to speak to me, even though she isn't here in the flesh. A few portions in particular really struck me... This first one isn't about my grandmother, but about her mother. My great grammie Lena.

Q: What was life like in the city at that time? (when she was a child)
A: It was congested. We lived in a tenement apartment. My mother fought hard to keep the cockroaches out. She spread red pepper everywhere.
Q: Did that help?
A: Well, the other tenants didn't care so she was fighting their roaches.
Q: Your mother cared.
A: Yes she did. Children from the tenement would come in and ask my mother, "Please wash my face and hands so I can go to school." She would even dress them in our clean clothes and then clean their clothes during the day and put the clean clothing back on the kids after school.

This tells me that the sense of charity toward others that my grandmother had was instilled in her by her mother, and she passed that on to me. She helped everyone she could possibly help. I've had strangers tell me my grandmother helped them in this way or that. Babysitting their kids while they cared for a sick parent in the hospital, or bringing them whoopie pies as a pick me up when they were having a bad day. And she never spoke of these things. She never expected praise. She just did it because it was the only way she knew to be. I strive to keep that, to help others. I never knew my great grammie Lena, yet through these few sentences I suddenly feel as though I do know her.

I'll never forget when I was young and my grandmother asked my sister to go feed the dog for her. I overheard my gram and my mother discussing why she had asked my sister and not me, she knew I was afraid of the dog. But it was what she said next that stuck with me. "Katrina may be afraid of that dog, but you know she'd have gone out and fed him for me without complaint if I'd asked. She would help anyone who asked for help." I was probably ten years old at the time, and that stuck with me. That was my drive to do the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program in high school, and to stay with her the summer she had her knee replacement and do her housework for her. Overhearing her say that one sentence about me made me a better person. You never know what kids are overhearing, and you never know what they will take to heart.

When my grandmother was pregnant with my father my grandfather was in the service and was killed in a car accident in Germany. 7 days before my father was born my grandmother was widowed. This next excerpt talks about that time.

Q: Where did you live then?
A: With my mom and dad in Portland. But my parents asked: "Do you want to live in the city and raise a child?" I had lived in the city for three years and had torn down an old barn, I had planned to use the wood for a camp.
Back in 1958 my father had purchased five acres on the Bear River in Harrison for $10down. I later found out that realtor was offered more money, but he said no because, "I already had a deal." My father paid half and I paid the other half. First we built a 14-foot by 14-foot shack and covered it with tarpaper. In 1964, mother and dad, my brother and my son moved there. In the summer my brother slept in a tent. ... I just about purchased a board at a time as I could come up with the money. I'm frugal and don't believe in credit. Now the house is 32-feet by 32-feet, three bedrooms, living room, a full bath and a Franklin fireplace.

My senior year of high school we had my graduation party at my grandmother's house. For weeks afterward I was correcting friends who called it my grandmother's "camp". It is a tiny little place, not very impressive. The doors leak cold air in. You have to whisper to hide anything you say in the house because the walls are so thin. When we put the whole family around the dinner table (and the kids around a card table in the living room) it was impossible to walk through the house without making people stand up and push in their chairs. And it was home. It is home. Now my aunt lives there, with her four children. The furniture has all been moved around, the bedrooms redecorated. I still find myself expecting to see my grandmother sitting in her chair working on a jigsaw puzzle in the living room, and my uncle shooting at trees in the yard. We moved a lot when I was little, we even lived with my grandmother for a short period of time, and her house was always my home. The one place I could go back to. The one place I knew would always have an unlocked front door and a fridge full of food.

Q: Well, Vesta, you're an interesting person. What advice would you give people?
A: Don't be afraid to share. Give back more in return for what you receive, and look for people who need help and help them. I know a lot of people hold back because of fear, but people still need to try.

Peace Within The Holidays

2009-12-10T15:16:00.000-08:00

I work retail. I am an associate manager of a pet store. Retail+Christmas=Hell for most people. I have found peace within the holiday. I am thoroughly enjoying the season this year. This holiday is SUPPOSED to be all about the peace and every year we listen to horror stories of people getting trampled in Walmart. Every day I see children losing their minds with boredom while being dragged through the mall by parents who can't find just the right gift for that great aunt they speak to twice a year. A customer at my register swore at me the whole time she was there for the holiday music because she hates the stress of Christmas so much that is has made her loath even the music. It isn't a calm, peaceful holiday. It's insanity.

What I don't understand is people simply complaining about it. We have the power to create our own lives! We have the power to change our circumstance. If you don't like the insanity of the season then don't participate in it.

I have spent countless hours making gifts this year and I am about halfway through my list. And I am loving it. I could have done all the shopping I needed to do in a matter of days, but I would have hated it. I'm an artist and a crafter. I create things constantly anyway. If I'm going to spend my time with a paintbrush in my hand I might as well use that painting a gift for a loved one!

Growing up I received many gifts and I remember only a few of them. As I thought back over the years I realized that the things that were made for me were what MADE Christmas for me each year. Those are the gifts I remember, and the items I still own; an afghan from my great-grandmother, a jewelry box from my grandfather. My grandmother made hershey kiss countdown to Christmas ribbons. I looked forward to these every year, and since she passed away I have made it a point to make them for all of her grandchildren.

Throughout the chaos of the holiday you hear "Peace on Earth". My realization was that we hear that phrase constantly, but very few of us actually LISTEN to that phrase. To find peace within myself this holiday I have focused on the things I love. Baking and making gifts for those around me. No stress. Only joy.

And of course Peace...

faoi shíocháin

2009-12-09T09:27:00.000-08:00

Faoi shíocháin is Gaelic for at peace. As of late I find myself at peace. At peace with who I am. At peace with the life I have been given. At peace with the relationships I share with those around me. At peace with my place in this world. I find myself at the grocery store looking at others and sensing the lack of peace within them and I feel for them. I wish the rest of the world could feel the happiness and peace I carry within myself. And somehow I hope my presence can bring a bit of that peace.

Lately I have not been at peace with my online persona. I was not at peace with how I was portrayed in my blog. I was not comfortable with the things I was sharing with the world, nor was I comfortable with how they were coming across. I was not comfortable with how much of my old self was published on the internet. I am a very different person now then I was ten years ago when I first discovered the joys of online journals. I don't spend nearly as much time on the computer now as I used to. I have become a very deep, spiritual being. My Celtic roots have grown and now play more of a pivotal role in who I am, and in my connection to Mother Earth.

My old blog had taken so many different directions. It had become a chaotic collection of moments of my life, poetry, photos... It had no focus, no calm, no peace. There were too many negative moments, too many negative emotions. It was not a shining corner of the world, but a cluttered mess of commotion.

This blog is all about the peace. This blog is for expressing my spiritual self. This blog will be my personal corner of peace on the web. A place to talk about the things that bring me joy, the love in my life and the things that make me think deeply. A place for written meditation. Where I came from and what my life was like before is not who I am. I have created who I am through meditation, through experience and growth. And I hope that reading my blog will somehow bring you a sense of peace as well.

I wish for you to be faoi shíocháin.