Peace be within your walls. — Psalm 122:7
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. — Isaiah 60:1
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The two Advent candles create more light together. The pair of lights suggest a relationship.
Peaceful relationships involve communication, reciprocity, and cooperation. People connected in such a way also recognize, accept, and trust each other.
How do you spend time being present to people with whom you have relationships? How do you ‘show up’? How do they ‘show up’ for you? How do you share time and connection? What forms of communication do you choose? In what ways do you build trust between yourself and others?
Clarity about being ‘okay’ yourself, so that you can be available to someone else, actually strengthens your ability to contribute to relationships. Think of it as the oxygen mask lesson on an airplane, when you are told to put on your own mask first, before assisting someone else. For instance, be sure you continue to be attentive to your own equilibrium via self-care: sleep, exercise, good nutrition, strategies for relaxation and renewal. Set reasonable limits to the way you offer your presence to others, whenever you can establish such boundaries, though sometimes caregivers are in situations that challenge self-care). Always check your boundaries within relationships.
Sometimes, when you are connected to people who are struggling with circumstances outside their control, and beyond your capacity to change, showing up is the most significant contribution you can make. In caregiving circles, this can be called ‘bearing witness.’ Sometimes it takes the shaping of being a consistent presence or companion, perhaps it takes the shape of mentoring or coaching, or just being a friend who listens and hangs out. This attentiveness may often be the best, most significant response you can offer someone.
Ultimately, peaceful relationships permit each participant to honor the light within other(s). Such a bond also enables you to shine your own light, too. Shine on! — Rev Gail
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No person, no place, and no thing has any power over us, for ‘we’ are the only thinkers in our mind.
When we create peace and harmony and balance in our minds, we will find it in our lives. — Louise Hay
Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset. — St. Francis de Sales