A post shared by Elephant Journal (@elephantjournal) on Jul 15, 2018 at 9:03am PDT

What do we do when our hunger for peace becomes a burden?

What do we do when our efforts feel all in vain or just not vast enough? How can we continue to believe in the heart of humanity when it feels as if the more we care, the more heartache we feel?

Who my love, is the identity of your soul attached to?
We are all here for a purpose—a reason.
Do we all share the same one?
Oddly, I think not.

We are here to experience as much as humanly possible.

We are here to reconnect to some vital part of our being that can only experience that aliveness here and not somewhere else…someplace we know but have no recollection of.

We are here to carry on…

We are here to carry on something that is a part of the intricate webs of the multiverse—something that nudges at our souls.

When our hunger for peace becomes a burden, we must surrender…

We must surrender to life.
We must surrender to time.
We must surrender to the beauty that is present.
We must surrender our identity to saving something or someone.
If the house is burning, get out.
If there are people inside, get them out.

And now, as you see the walls crackle down and the roof cave in…
Hold one another.
Console one another.
Feel one another.
And let the current of love, hope, peace, and joy take root.
A bitter heart searching for peace serves no one.
An estranged soul marching for peace cannot be heard.
This peace must come from within—
From the aftermath of all that has burned to the ground.

~

I wrote this after watching Waylon Lewis’ Instagram live.

Watching him explore his heart allowed me to explore mine, and the question that arose for me was the beginning of the poem above. What do we do when the hunger for peace becomes a burden?

There are so many love warriors out there right now serving in such epic ways. I question my ability to do anything meaningful when I see what some of them are doing. I share their posts, I give money to their causes, I believe in what they are doing, and I admire their courage to show up and speak for the abundance of things that are happening that are a cry against humanity.

Then I think—is this ever going to change? Does this help at all, or are we simply magnifying the situation? And instantly, I think of freedom and the ways in which we have all desired this—and I think: if we forget to desire something that is out of our grasp, do things ever change?

With every breath we take, we are experiencing our aliveness. With every letter we write to our governments demanding our voices to be heard, we experience our aliveness. With every pause we take when scrolling through the noise and really feel into someone’s story, we experience our aliveness. With every GoFundMe account that helps someone in need, we experience this aliveness.

If we have within us the ability to do any of these things—and truthfully, so many of us do so much more—then we are part of the collective consciousness for peace, and we are all love warriors doing our part. Can we do more? A question only for the individual to answer. Does it make a difference? Yes, undoubtedly it does.

What can we do when we start to feel off-balance in this journey of bringing light into our universe? When the opposition starts to feel too grand for even the large capacity of our hearts? We surrender to the divine life force within us, and we let the fight drop, not forever, but for as long as it takes for our hearts to be refueled by Mother Earth herself and the love that is present every single day, showing up in the most humbling of ways.

We remember this by the sounds of true laughter, by the joy felt in tasting the first strawberry of the summer season, by the feel of our child’s hand in ours, by the smell of their sweet skin, by the butterflies of a first kiss, by the comfort of a timeless love, by the rush of a ski run down a snow-covered hill, by the feel of sand sifting through our fingertips as the sun warms our backs, by a hug from a true friend, by a playful nudge from our four-legged friend.

This is the aliveness—and this aliveness is connected to the peace we are hungrily craving. Experience this first from within, and from there, pour that out. We are a collective of peaceful warriors and sustenance for our souls is a must.

~