What is peace of mind? I think it might be the absence of agitation, or fear or worry. We don’t walk around pondering if we have peace of mind, or do we?
This may seem silly to some people. But there are moments, usually in the middle of the night, when I get a fleeting feeling of what I sense as happiness. It’s not ha-ha happiness, but more a sense of contentment, well-being, peace, wholeness or “all is well.”
For example, while I was playing a game on my phone late one night, I startled myself by thinking, “I’m full of joy.” Have you ever noticed that you can be thinking something, and working on something else, all with the same mind? I wonder sometimes if one of those functions is one’s spirit, and the other one is one’s mind or brain.
In this instance, I wasn’t thinking about anything, I was just challenged by the game. I wasn’t particularly happy or joyful nor unhappy or melancholy. I wondered if maybe it was my spirit reminding me what peace of mind is, and I’m full of it.
Some folks are ha-ha happy. You can hear or see them laughing all the time, it seems. They wear happiness on their sleeves and are laugh-out-loud poster children. Why am I skeptical?
These guys are foreigners to those of us who are happy inside. We giggle once in a while but rarely roar with laughter, or laugh until we cry.
My mom and my father-in-law were models of this sort of silent happiness that creeps up on you privately. Although we can be the subtly sarcastic life of the party usually with a self-deprecating amusing story, we’re more likely standing outside of the center of attention, observing others.
I’ve come to treasure those sorts of rare nocturnal confessions of “I’m happy.” There is no discernible physical pain to speak of. The weather isn’t expected to be extreme. No decisions must be made, right now. I have no impending hassles to think about. I might have accomplished a thing or two, the previous day. There’s no immediate due date unhandled. All of my relationships are in peaceful pause. I’ve got creative thoughts, if not sleep. I’m happy.
Maybe I’m not using the right word to elucidate that feeling of wholeness, nothing broken, nothing missing, or “discernibly and eerily okay.” In fact, one definition of Shalom, is complete peace, including all aspects of wholeness.
The Hebrew greeting, Shalom Aleichem, in English means, “Peace to you.” To continue the polite greeting chain of events, you may respond, Aleichem Shalom, “to you, be Peace.”
When I hold my grand-baby while he naps, I usually pray that when he awakens, he will do so in peace. I’ve experienced the opposite with him, and it’s heartbreaking.
I relate the disoriented, panicky or unhappy awakening from a nap to my own occasional experience. Have you ever taken an afternoon nap, having been worn to a frazzle? I have, and sometimes when I awaken after sound slumber, I have no idea what day or time of day it is. I look for signs to help myself orient, like is it daylight or dark, what are the sounds in the house, and so on. It’s really quite freaky.
As recorded in the book of Mark, Jesus once commanded a storm to settle down, with three words, “peace be still.” Settle down, “peace out.”
The phrase, “peace out” was used by hippies, anti-war, or anti-establishment folks in the sixties. “Peace” meant to get out of the war in Vietnam; combined with “out” which was the radio communication for signaling “the end.”
To re-appropriate a word is to use it again after it has been relegated to disrepute by certain groups. I’d like to re-appropriate the phrase, “peace out.” Why couldn’t the phrase become an everyday greeting, or wish for wholeness, completion, and every good and perfect thing, offered to another along your path.
Since I’m not Hebrew, I feel a little funny saying Shalom, to others; maybe even misappropriating the Hebrew culture. But I’m of an age that I can probably get away with saying, “peace out,” and get away with it.
Mind you, not every time that I’m awake in the wee hours of the night, am I getting those messages of peace, along with Bob Marley singing to me, “every little thing is gonna be alright.” More often than not, I’m thinking a thousand thoughts about what and how I’m going to do this that and the other thing tomorrow rather than, engaging in “peace be still,” tonight. That’s why it’s startling when peace so clearly announces itself.
So, please have yourself some peace of mind, even if it comes around when you’re busy thinking of other things. Apparently, we are capable of entertaining all kinds of thoughts all at the same time. I hope that one of those thoughts is “I’m at peace, or full of joy, or happy or ….”