During the holidays you probably saw and heard the word Peace many times. So much so that you might not of given it a second thought.
I’ve been reflecting on Peace al lot lately and I often think 
The Bible talks about Peace a great deal.
Luke 7:50
Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."
Luke 24:36
[ Jesus Appears to the Disciples ] While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."
Acts 10:36
You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.
Romans 5:1
[ Peace and Joy ] Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Romans 16:20
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
1 Corinthians 1:3
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.Numbers 25:12
Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him.
Judges 6:24
So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
- I find it interesting that many believe the Peace sign is meant to be an upside down broken cross
Wikipedia says that Peace is:
- a quality describing a society or a relationship that is operating harmoniously. This is commonly understood as the absence of hostility, or the existence of healthy or newly-healed, safety in matters of social or economic welfare, the acknowledgment of equality and fairness in political relationships and, in world matters, peacetime; a state of being absent of any war or conflict. Reflection on the nature of peace is also bound up with considerations of the causes for its absence or loss. Among these potential causes are: insecurity, social injustice, economic inequality, political and religious radicalism, and acute racism and nationalism.
- Perhaps what is more of interest to me though is Inner Peace
Inner peace (or peace of mind) refers to a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress. Being "at peace" is considered by many to be healthy homeostasis and the opposite of being stressed or anxious. Peace of mind is generally associated with bliss and happiness.
Peace of mind, serenity, and calmness are descriptions of a disposition free from the effects of stress. In some cultures, inner peace is considered a state of consciousness or enlightenment that may be cultivated by various forms of training, such as prayer, meditation, T’ai Chi Ch’uan or yoga, for example. Many spiritual practices refer to this peace as an experience of knowing oneself. Finding inner peace is often associated with traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism.
This past year I’ve noticed that I am more at Peace with myself and the world around me than I ever have been. Even though there have been events this year that have sliced into my Peace their effects have been lessened from what they would have been before.
This is what Peace means to me…
Peace is knowing that your actions reflect the person you are.
Peace is being able to live with the decisions that you make.
Peace is knowing that you did your best, even if your best is different than someone else’s
Peace is being comfortable with who you are and not trying to change that.
For one person it may be standing up for yourself for the first time.
For another it may be letting something slide when you normally would have lashed out.
Peace is something that many promise but it is not something that can be provided by someone else.
Only you can provide yourself with peace.
And to that I say…
Peace
We’ve been busy busy busy around here and I haven’t felt much like writing. I’ve sat down to write a post once or twice but the words just don’t feel right so I walk away and never come back to it. The words still don’t feel right today but I’ve decided that I am going to force myself to sit down and actually post something.
How were your holidays? Ours were great. Filled with family and fun and presents.
Then a week long vaca at the Happiest Place on Earth and when I say that I mean it. It is our favorite place on earth. Which is why we spent five straight days at Disneyland and California Adventure.
It is good to be home though. I never thought nine hours of laundry followed by two hours of washing cars would actually feel good but it does in a masochistic sort of way.
There were many happy memories made this week but one that sticks out as so so special is our Build-a-Bear experience. Evangeline received a gift card for B.A.B. over Christmas so I put it aside to use at Downtown Disney because they have an awesome two story B.A.B. and I wanted to check it out. I wasn’t so excited about the regular ‘ole bears and bunnies downstairs and it was packed like a can of sardines in there so we trekked on upstairs where they had Build-a-Dino. An ecstatic Eva picked out a Pteranodon just like on the show “Dinosaur Train” and named it Tiny.
I have never seen her more excited about shopping. She had her arms full of clothes and accessories for her little dino. I wish I had taken a picture. We had to pry half of it out of her hands of course.
It was just a truly delightful experience to see my little one so happy and about something that I thoroughly approve of. I don’t like her to watch too much TV but Dinosaur Train is a great new show on PBS which also touches a bit on adoption.
Now that the holidays and vacation are over I can get back to school and start working on my goals for this year. One of which is losing the 5 pounds that I gained during all the glutinous festivities.
*And no none of these business are paying me to write great things about them. I wish they were….but they’re not.
I had a great idea for a post the other day. I sat down to write it, opened up windows live writer. Then I got distracted and now I can’t remember what it was.
Now I am writing this post about nothing which serves the sole purpose of moving my last post down a notch. I’m tired of looking at the title “The one where I almost commit homicide and suicide” it’s just not right, and frankly it freaks me out every time I look at it in big bold letters.
The problem is I don’t have anything to write about today so I’m just going to torture you with some of my recent twitter posts. It’s so much easier to post on twitter then to think up something interesting to write on here. You know what I mean? Maybe because I’m just not a long winded person.
Alrighty, here ya are.
A must read…Jaimee Rose at the AZ Republic does a great job of telling Stephanie Nielson’s @nieniedialogues story http://bit.ly/5st9pA
Awesome Christmas lights, watch with your little one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTbpuQzMnxA
Twoddlers Twittering? Really?! I mean REALLY?! Check out this new toy that does just that. http://bit.ly/7vv4wG
I really wanta know so please answer this question……Do you still use a mousepad?
It’s peewee football people! You don’t have to scream like it’s the Superbowl. One downside to having a park across from my house.
I love Phoenix in the winter time…it’s a dry chill. No rain or snow. Just blue skies and red mountains. Beautiful.
Need to do a presentation? Wish I would have known about this a week ago…http://prezi.com/
Training the people in your life like you would a whale? Actually looks kind of interesting http://bit.ly/5HEp8Z
LOVE this kid @chriscolfer he is the best part about Glee http://bit.ly/7wrvLB
Trying to do homework while taking care of a two year old SUCKS!
Watch It! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvmE4_KMNw
I just love Ellen. She is such an inspiration. http://bit.ly/4aAA2O @TheEllenShow
The Elf’s are back in town! http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/HtiuSQ3Dnn3LPjez
Where the F do I live????!!!! Seriously? Buy A Car Get A Gun. http://bit.ly/3NN2Ai
At what age is it no longer appropriate to pick your child’s nose?
Catch Up U.S.! RT @DrJeffersnBoggs Uruguay 1st Country to give Every School Child a Laptop – http://ow.ly/wg9W
Got mistaken for 17 in a courtroom the other day. Was told I had to wait in the hall. Whaa! I’m 30! Obviously she needed glasses.
Whenever I fall asleep with a bad headache I have disturbing nightmares like this one.
For some reason (in my dream) I can’t remember why, but for some reason I was supposed to “off” both myself and my baby girl. I know. Disturbing. Like I said, I’m not entirely sure why I was supposed to do this but I’m gonna blame this twisted plot on too much Stephanie Meyer. So, in my dream I ordered a bomb that was delivered in the mail, when it came all I had to do was add water and then hit it with a baseball bat to detonate it. There I was, standing in my kitchen, with the box on the island, I added water, and then something happened. Either I couldn’t do it or something changed and I didn’t have to. At this point I was too scared to touch the box for fear it would blow up so I just left it there for Chris to deal with when he got home. But I forgot to tell him about it it so it stayed there until we went to bed, and then woke up in a panic in the middle of the night because, there was a bomb in the kitchen! And, like, Eva might wake up and find it.
This is when I woke up for real and had to remind myself that it was just a dream, an awful awful dream.
Any of you dream experts out there want to take a stab at this one?
Actually, I already have a few theories of my own but feel free to add yours.
1. I have an irrational fear that Eva will wake up in the middle of the night and peruse around the house and find something to hurt herself on.
2. Chris will find out about the clothes I ordered online when the box is delivered to our house, and when he sees it he will BLOW up like a bomb.
3. I’ve been watching too much Twilight and New Moon and the suicidile themes are creeping into my dreams.
Number 2 is actually pretty funny because Chris is so not the type to blow up about anything especially not me buying something.
On another note.
Happy Thanksgiving!
On another another note.
It’s black Friday in 4 more hours and I know you think I’m crazy but I’m heading out at midnight this year! Ahhhh. I’ll let you know if I’m still alive tomorrow.
Eva has started this new super cute thing, because you know everything your own kid does is super cute and when a different kid does the exact same thing it’s just annoying, anyways she does this thing where if she is trying to get my attention she waves her arms at me and says “WooHoo!”. My face is beaming with pride just telling you about it that’s how darn cute it is. But I realize she’s not your kid so you probably find it annoying. Oh well, you’re just jealous.
The title of this post was inspired by my dear Eva because lately I feel like I have became that person, that parent who just isn’t all there. You know what I mean? Maybe it’s school, maybe it’s my health, maybe it’s this debt diet, maybe it’s the holidays just around the corner, or maybe it’s motherhood finally infecting my brain. Wow, that’s a lot of maybes. Maybe it is all the maybes? Ha!
School is great, but the only thing is that every since I have started back I have not worked out, once. Not once have I gone to the gym, gone for a run, done yoga, or popped in Jillian Michaels DVD. I think it is starting to affect my health. I just don’t have the energy I used to have, I’m not taking care of Eva the way I used to (she ate candy corn for breakfast for goodness sake!), and this week I got infected with some sort of upper-respiratory nastiness. Which is why my 2 year old now knows how to hack a lugi. You’re Welcome.
The debt diet is getting stressful. The stores have already been flooded with Christmas presents and I feel like if I don’t buy them all now they will sell out and I won’t be able to get them later. Ridiculous, I know. Plus it’s like, FALL. And there is all this wonderful fally stuff to do around here. But it gets expensive. There are high school football games, elementary school festivals, apple picking, pumpkin farms, long drives that require lot’s of gas, and Cracker Barrel because you need to eat after watching the football game, going to the festival, picking apples, carving pumpkins and taking that long drive you know?
The Holidays could very well be to blame for the clouding of my mind. I have soooo been looking forward to this Christmas ever since last Christmas. Eva will be older and more into it. She already knows half the Christmas songs. I am beyond excited for Halloween, trick or treating, and hanging out with family and friends, eating lots of candy, dressing Eva up for what may be the last year I have the final say on her Halloween costume. The Holidays are just so much fun when you are a parent! 100 times funner even then when you are a kid. It must be that whole “It’s better to give then to receive thing” or something.
So, I apologize if I just haven’t “been there” as much as I used to be. Just wave your arms at me and yell “WooHoo!” every once in a while. Even if I don’t answer you I’ll still laugh at you and tell you how cute you are.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
