MAKING PEACE WITH REALITY
by Jill Schmidt Weaver, Schowalter Villa Chaplain
In January 2025, Rick and I adopted a dog from the Kansas Humane Society – a terrier mix. Lulu is young, enthusiastic, and has boundless energy! One of her favorite activities is going to the dog park to chase balls, wrestle with other dogs, and get muddy! One of her least favorite activities is getting her paws wiped with a towel afterwards.
In her early days of living with us, we’d gently lift one paw to clean it and she would tense up, jerk her paw out of our hand, and quickly slink away from us. We’d have to follow her, bring her back, and try again. Oh, she would strain and fight and pull away from us! Finally, after much struggle, we’d finish the paw-cleaning task, both of us tired (and grouchy).
Slowly over time, Lulu began to relax as we cleaned her paws. Perhaps she resigned herself to the fact that fighting us would not help – her paws were still going to be cleaned. Maybe she realized that getting her paws cleaned wasn’t indeed the catastrophe she originally thought it was! Maybe she began to trust us more. Whatever the reason, she has stopped resisting, stopped trying to run away, and now allows us to wipe her paws without the struggle. Life seems a lot easier now.
How often do we, like Lulu, strain and fight against challenging circumstances that come our way? How much more stress and suffering do we create by resisting what is here? Could there be an easier way to live?
May the gentle words of this poem open our hearts to seek to make peace with reality.
Let go of the ways you though life would unfold, the holding of plans or dreams or expectations – Let it all go.
Save your strength to swim with the tide.
The choice to fight what is here before you now will only result in struggle, fear, and desperate attempts to flee from the very energy you long for.
Let go. Let it all go and flow with the grace that washes through your days whether you received it gently or with all your quills raised to defend against invaders.
Take this on faith; the mind may never find the explanations that it seeks, but you will move forward nonetheless.
Let go, and the wave’s crest will carry you to unknown shores, beyond your wildest dreams or destinations.
Let it all go and find the place of rest and peace, and certain transformation.
- by Danna Faulds