time off

Tue, Dec 8 – DAY 10

Peace within relationships may include committing to renewed availability to people in your life. Especially in these days, it’s easy to be too busy. To be distracted. To put deadlines and schedules and errands first, rather than focusing on the significant people who are essential to your wellbeing within emotionally intimate connections.

            Or perhaps you’re with some folks constantly, care-giving or quarantined or working and schooling at home. Maybe you’re together in ways that make it challenging to step back and appreciate these special people in your life.

            Make dates when the phone and computer and other screens and monitors aren’t drawing away your attention. Choose settings and activities that draw those with whom you’re spending time into more conversational, companionable roles.

            Listen. Listen actively. Make eye contact. Repeat the phrases and themes you hear from the one with whom you’ve set aside time. Give your whole attention to the experience. Mirror body language.

            Relax. Laugh. Have fun. Do a puzzle. Play a game. Cook together. Walk. Sip hot beverages. Share poetry aloud with each other. Discuss a book or article you’ve read. Play with a pet. Learn something new together: take an online class or try a recipe. Spend time in ways that are meaningful and rejuvenating for each of you. Such sharing may happen in person or across remote connections. Peace is a process, even in relationships. — Rev Gail

Peace be within your walls. — Psalm 122:7

Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. — Psalm 85:10

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.
If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.
— attributed to Lao-Tse

Sometimes you need to know that you have good people at your back when things go awry in your life.  Good relationships can bring peace of mind, not to mention longer life, companionship, health, happiness, and a host of other benefits.  At bottom, we are social creatures who need each other. — Meg Selig