"Claim
truth where you find it” ~ Rob Bell
But….even
through all my Philosophy, Buddha, Tolle, and endless psychology readings, my
ugly monster will occasionally reappear.
Especially
at Wal-Mart!
To make a
long story short…I went in to Wal-Mart last Sunday at 5:00 pm, only to come out
at 7:00 pm.
Now you’re
problem thinking, “two hours….that’s normal”….and in most cases that’s true…but
for me, that was for a bag of Dog Food and one container of coffee.
The rest of
the time was spent waiting 25 minutes at the sporting goods area…20 minutes at
the jewelry department…and 25 min in the 20 items or less line…only to have the
lane closed when I reached the checker.
"I’m sorry sir…It’s my lunch break”
At this
point, there were not enough positive affirmations in the self-help world that
could sooth the rumblings of my childhood beast.
I took a
deep breath… and then proceeded toward the checker lines from hell.
There was a
lady in front of me with Planet of the Apes’ tattoos all up and down her arm (of course Cesar was prominently displayed
at the top).
In front of her
was a small child of about 10 years old (this
is sarcasm) jumping up and down in a buggy. His mom was frantically feeding
him a package of sugary skittles to calm to down.
You guessed
right…it didn’t work.
Amongst all
this chaos, I couldn’t help but notice the checker. She was a small sweet
looking lady with an extremely peaceful look on her face.
Throughout
this whole process….. Kids jumping…..mothers with the wrong coupons….money
change needed…. she never broke her smile.
I finally
arrived at her station with my one bag of dog food and my one container of coffee
and said, “Whew….I don’t know how you do it!”
She replied,
“Do what?”…..she seemed very confused
by my statement.
I replied,
“Work in all this chaos”
She returned
to her sweet little peaceful smile and replied, “It only affects you if you allow it”.
All I could
say was thank you.
This “Aha”
moment was a great reminder that real peace is being able to accept what is. Acceptance
simply means recognizing your “ugly monster” voice and rejecting it.
Acknowledging
that the only person we can change is ourselves enables us to do this.
There is a
lot of negative energy and craziness in this world, but we can all learn to
live with inner peace. If your intention is strong and
consistent… it will happen.
Outwardly, nothing
changes… peace comes from within.
~ Anguish…Life is Pain
~ Acknowledge…Acceptance~ Cessation…Stop
~ New Path…Peace
