“Peace within; Peace between; Peace among.”
“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”
I don’t know where that first quote came from. I have looked and all I found was the title of a Virginia Satir book of the same name. The second quote I found in a Sundance catalog on a pictured piece of wall art. The catalog description says the quote is by Omar Khayyam. Each quote came to me in the last few days or weeks and they both stuck. Somehow they came further together in my mind with a poem I wrote in October of 1997 after a visit to Cedar Key to visit friends in the Old Florida cottage they were renting across the street from the water and near the downtown area.
Joan Morgan, an artist, lived two doors down from where my friends were staying. The front room of her cottage was her gallery, a room painted all white and hung with her watercolors of flowers. The paintings seemed so clean and fresh, soft and inviting, happy, all at once. I wanted to stay right there among them all. When Joan and I met, we quickly found many ways to connect with each other and much to say as we shared our stories. I gave Joan a copy of the White Wolf Musings book I had written two years earlier. When she read it, she came immediately to see me at my friends’ and offered me a trade: a piece of her art, “Irises with Roses”, for my book. I was honored and flattered, and smile even now at the difference in the cost of her art compared to my book. So I did buy her painting, and gave her my book, and it seemed quite an even trade, all considered.
Months later, I wrote this poem. I was newly in love with the man who has now been my husband for almost nineteen years, and had thought often of how I felt talking with Joan Morgan at her gallery in Cedar Key.
A Life of Moments
I would like life of moments with passersby and me
Who sit on the front porch on white wicker
To rock or swing
And talk about adventures changing life
As others called us crazy
And we produced clear colors or words
From what we found
Inside.
I would like a life of moments with you and me
Who lie on the bed on white cotton
To love or sleep
And live out our adventures changing life
As others call us lucky
And we know it’s true
From what we’ve found
Everywhere.
So, my friends, this is what has been in my mind recently. Fit the parts together as you will. Fit it for your own life and what you see in this often frightening, even horrifying craziness of our current world and times. I know that approaching peace within for me requires a commitment to practice when I accept it. And I do observe how my own peace and happiness in a particular moment can change what is around me and what I do with any moment I am given. If you are a passerby, stop, sit with me on the porch to rock or swing a bit in this oasis out of the fray. We all need that in our lives of moments, each of which is precious.
As always when I write here, my thoughts and love are with you. May you fill your life of moments with happiness and peace within, leading to peace between and on to peace among … and throughout the world. The world needs those of us who will do that.
Amen…
Enid
Lovely Dale…and the quote is by Omar Khayyam.
Dale Midgette Smith
Thank you, Enid…and thank you for the confirmation of the quote’s author, too. 🙂
Trish
Thank you, Dal”eee. What an elegant reminder to come home to self in peace—then between and among peace. Sending hugs and loving thoughts your way.
Dale Midgette Smith
Trish! I must have gotten lost for a few weeks here. So sorry to have let the time for responding slip away. So much for elegance…and for coming home to self. Please know that I appreciate your comments and always have and always will. Hugs and love to you, too…
Anonymous
Ah, a happy thought: sitting with you in your blue swing, catching up. xNini
Dale Midgette Smith
Hello, dear Nini…I definitely thought I’d answered this. Clearly not, at least until now. Ah yes, a lovely thought catching up on the blue swing or anywhere. Come over when the weather cools off! Love to you