Getting Personal with Peace and Presence by Leela Williams

We are constantly encountering new ideas – sometimes we feel barraged by them. Some we move past, like strangers passing in a crowded street, concepts glimpsed but not fully noticed. And then, for some reason, some ideas catch our curiosity. When an idea excites us, it is unlikely to be the first time it has swung through our orbit. Perhaps it is dressed in different clothing or with someone we know? We may stumble across an idea so many times that it comes to feel familiar. For whatever reason, it turns our heads, our attention shifts and we catch a fragment of meaning. The idea now feels personal.

I wasn’t sure what to write for this month’s column because I have had such a profound encounter with a new concept that it has gone from something I was happy to give a nod and a wave in passing to changing how I see myself and understand my past, my present and my possible futures. While this new information sets up home and reframes my perspectives, so much is in flux that I am reluctant to commit anything to text. It’s such an interesting process where I can clear whole puzzle drawers from my mind and choose what to replace them with. Of course, engaging with new ideas and having these wonderfully epiphanically thought-freeing experiences is one of the perks of self-help, the New Age, philosophy, music and mysticism. In the Venn diagram of my interests, revelation is in the crossover zone.

And each time a little of the mystery of who, why and whatever I am is solved, what fills the space it took up in my thoughts? Sometimes new ideas can be scary, because we aren’t sure what we will find on the other side. When I began meditating and learning to observe my thoughts, I feared I would find monsters. For a time, it felt like I did. I realised the monsters couldn’t hurt me more because I was aware of them. Then I realised the monsters weren’t intending to hurt but to help me. These ‘monsters’ were curiosity, creativity, intelligence and more aspects of brilliance that every mind possesses, but in some environments go into hiding or begin wearing disguises or take on a mission of protection so fierce that it feels oppressive.

On the other side, those monsters are my greatest allies. When the noise of a new idea settles and the mental reshuffling is done, the space created naturally invites new puzzles and questions. I like to reserve a little of the void for ‘nothing’. I can go to that emptiness in meditation, sleep or to get into the ‘writing zone’ and exist without expectation. This capacity to ‘be’ is one of the many ways I foster my sense of peace.

At this time of year, slogans of peace, joy and happiness are plastered everywhere. However, for me, Christmas was overwhelming and anxiety-inducing. I wanted what was being advertised and believed was possible. Peace is so simple yet can seem so evasive. The point I am clunkily trying to make is that making room for what you want is only part of the process. To know peace, I couldn’t just clear a space and hope it turned up unbidden. I had to know what it would look and feel like in my life. Instead of nodding to it when I passed it in the street, I had to engage with it and not just make the relationship personal but make it a priority. My holiday celebrations look very different now.

As part of my commitment to peace, I remain curious and open to other people’s experiences, successes and challenges. Everything I learn strengthens the relationship. I was delighted to share a little of my understanding and experience when Toni Carmine Salerno invited me to co-author Peace Oracle: Guidance for Challenging Times. I was also excited to connect with Trish Rock and her experiences in her book, The Peace Process. She writes about engaging with the power of peace as the new normal. The notion of engagement is so important not just with peace but in whatever you wish to make a foundation in your world.

Engagement requires presence. As the year closes, I invite you to join me in reflecting on the concepts we have met. Do we want to know about them or to be transformed by them? If so, engage and be forever present.

In peace, Leela

Image features the Forever Present card from Peace Oracle by Toni Carmine Salerno and Leela J. WIlliams.  

To support your journey into the holiday season and beyond, Peace Oracle and The Peace Process are now available as a package from Tarotopia. Connect with Leela J. Williams at https://linktr.ee/leelajwilliams.