“I used to think that achieving inner peace
would make my heart look like a calm lake
I thought being in harmony meant:
no ripples
no waves
no lapping shores
~ just still water
it turns out that serenity
isn’t the absence of movement
in fact ~ it’s quite the opposite
because the more peace I feel
the more my heart churns
and bubbles like a lake boiling
as a ribbon of lava breaks through
underneath the water
I don’t think we were created
out of nothingness to come here
just to let our hearts become
an unmoving body of cold water
covered in standing algae
I think the Great Love placed a fire in us
so that our lives will be a natural spring
of swirling hot healing water
that never looks the same way twice
the war machine thinks it is the only thing
that can move and lumber
~ and that’s not simply true
peace is the most disturbing force in the universe
peace is the tide that washes away
the ancient seaweed of division
that builds upon our shores
peace is anything but still
it’s a tsunami that can terraform rock fortresses
into open-air chapels my love,
I’m starting to realize
that the less my heart moves
~ the heavier it gets
~ the more dust it collects
~ the less kindness I feel
but when I let my heart constantly stir
like a cotton candy machine
~ the lighter and sweeter it becomes
empathy is an act of chaos
it takes the narcissistic scripts
we have been given
and rewrites them
into a handwritten gospel of understanding
peacefulness is anything but still
~ it is pure motion
peace is the ripple
that starts in the center of my heart
and rushes out through the faucets
of my eyes, hands and tongue
out into the world my love,
ripples are remarkable
because we aren’t here to be stagnant
we are here to make a splash.”
John Roedel
King Edward Street Chapel 