Peace---a piece at a time

My thoughts have been circling around the two words of peace and piece. I realized that I may not always have peace because life is full of energy and change and time swirls around us. So permanent peace may not be a reality on this telestial sphere. However, I can have peace --- a piece at a time. I can experience moments of calm and a surety. I can have a piece of day that is devoted to the 'Giver of Peace'. I must invite that moment into my life. It is a creative endeavor that requires deliberate effort. Not the effort of labor but the effort of space...a focused moment where my mind is open to receive the spirit.

I want to find a piece of peace in everyday

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow circa 1850

A Psalm of Life

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.


Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul.


Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each to-morrow

Find us farther than to-day.


Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.


In the world's broad field of battle,

In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!

Be a hero in the strife!


Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!

Let the dead past bury its dead!

Act, -act, in the living Present!

Heart within, and God o'erhead!


Lifes of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;-


Footprints, that, perhaps another,

Sailing o'er life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother

Seeing, shall take heart again.


Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait.