Respond With Peace

Respond With Peace


Whatever things may come your way today,

make it a point to let your first response a peaceful one.

There is power in peaceful calmness,

the power to follow your own plans and purposes.

That gets lost when you react out of anger.



It takes determined intention and effort

to respond peacefully.

The power and control it gives you

are well worth the effort.

Certainly you want to look out for your own interests.

Yet just because you are firmly determined

is no reason to be angry and out of control.

The greatest power is almost always

in a peaceful, measured response.



Do you really want to let someone else

dictate your level of stress and anxiety?


Do you really want to let others

control your own actions?



Respond calmly and peacefully.

Maintain your composure.

Maintain your control.

Let your first response be peaceful,

and you'll make it much more effective.




~Ralph Marston

Let's see, which post shall I respond to, this one or all the others, Melissa. Thank you for all of them. In my very long conversation with my only deep, deep male friend alive today (who is a special ed teacher and a professional musician to boot, btw---wouldn't you guess?) when we talked at length about the language of love, peace and counsel, how that its in the delivery the message gets across. Preaching isn't teaching, repeating same questions (with a change in wording) doesn't get you closer to god/buddha or whomever at the level of divine is being asked to answer one's question, nor does it neccessarily answer your question. Chances are, you'll get further and further away from it instead.

Each paragraph in each post reminds us how both permanent and powerful yet somehow translucent and etherial the messages (and the truth behind them) are. They come and go in a blink of an eye, yet they can remain embedded in the person who made their observation/hearing by FIRST being ready for it, whatever arrives. No one said that would be easy, nor always the case. It IS a constant work, but it doesn't have to be demeaning, extremely difficult, or a struggle. That's the hardest part (stop struggling), which should be the easiest...the REAL meaning of letting go. It is so, I have found, SO:

Stop struggling, let the blows land, relax, let the ropes be tied, etc. (its also why drunks often don't get injuries others die from....their muscles are relaxed 'cause of the alcohol content(not tryin to promote drunkenness to avoid injury), but its true). STOP STRUGGLING is almost always my first advice when people come to me for counsel. Aho!

Wisdom in the light of the "fragile, flighty behavior of a butterfly in front of your own eyes can be just as powerful as the sound of the thundering hooves of a buffalo heading straight towards you from a distance about to crush you.

Stepping aside (in both situations) is the only truly wise way to resolve the issue, recognizing that its all THE ONE AND ONLY DANCE THERE IS, THE ONE AND ONLY HOME, THE ONE GREAT BIG NEIGHBORHOOD WE'VE GOT, what with all our global communication/"inter-CONNECTEDNESS".

You can't get rid of anything you don't want. Where yuh gonna put it? In your neighbor's back yard? Somewhere down the way, or in some other neighberhood? WELL, THERE IS NO OTHER NEIGHBORHOOD ANYMORE.

Dealing with obnoxious people/ideas/events can only be dealt with at THE NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION TOWN HALL MEETING PLACE.

And just where and when is this meeting taking place? We don't know, for sure. I suspect this "meeting of minds" to resolve our neighborhood issues IS OCCURING, ON THE INTERNET, in places like twohawksnest