It's easy to feel at peace when your environment is peaceful as well. Tonight I'm enjoying the silence of my apartment, just watering my plants and puttering around doing quiet things. There's a soft light in my kitchen there where the plants are and I find it so relaxing.
Yesterday Mom and I went to Central Park and just lounged in the sun. I went from stressed to relaxed in about 0.5 seconds. All that green everywhere immediately soothed my spirits and nothing seemed all that important anymore, just spending the day lolling about with Mom. We goofed around and talked aimlessly about this and that. It was good.
Last night I went out to dinner at a fancy raw foods restaurant with some friends and then met up with someone else for drinks afterward. He's having a hard time, possibly hit rock bottom, and I could tell he really wanted to talk. Questioning faith, family, love and loyalty, all the big things. Of course there wasn't any magic answer I could give him to make him feel better but I decided to be honest and share some of my own experiences since I've been through a few similar trials and have the benefit of hindsight now. That seemed to help. I gave him a strong hug as we said goodbye and I could see him relax and exhale. I'd like to think I was able to transfer some of my peace to him.
I'm reminded that it's important to listen to yourself and not get swept away in the discord around you when things get rocky. You should be sensitive to the way you act and note when it diverges from what you are really all about. I'd been thinking about this quite a bit already when I came across a piece by Korean calligrapher Son Man Jin at the Asian Museum of Art in San Francisco last month. It's similar to one of his pieces I'd seen at the Philadelphia Museum of Art the month before.
Some excerpts of the text accompanying the wild, slightly anthropomorphic designs include the following: "Human nature is pure and in it can be seen immutable truths. But we can lose sight of our integrity when confronting and managing worldly matters. With foresight we know the right thing to do, and our minds will therefore be tranquil. So we should avoid malice and remain sincere. If something is not righteous, pay it no attention."
Another reminder of why calligraphy resonates with me so much. Uncannily, it always seems to speak to what is in my heart at the moment.
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