Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Serenity

What does the word serenity mean to you?

Is it just living day to day life, accepting whatever comes your way? Perhaps, sometimes questioning the bad things that happen....with a...."Why me?" Just accepting the good that comes along, perhaps occasionally saying a "thank you", to whatever divine being you believe in?

I met a woman of 65 years today, actually we had two meetings today, in that first meeting to all outward appearances I had the impression that she was serene, tranquil. That for her life was as it should be, she was content, at peace with who she is, how she lives, loves.

Ten minutes into our conversation though, it was startling clear to me that she was far from serene. Yet, I do not think she knows it, she is one of those people that I think of as living life shallowly.

If we had had only one meeting, I would have eventually forgotten my secondary impression of her, assumed that she was just having a "not so tranquil" day.

But we did meet again, within 30 minutes of her leaving my office, she returned with a whole new set of questions, a whole new set of problems. She was searching for answers, but the questions were not the questions she needed to be asking, nor were the answers I gave her the answers she needed. She came back, because she is afraid to be alone with herself.

Her outer appearance so deceiving, her voice, her mannerisms all emoted serenity.

Yet.....within moments of beginning conversation with her, I knew, she is living only outwardly.

She does not search within herself to find the answers to her fears, to find the answers to her loneliness, to her agitations. She is experiencing the very early stages of an illness....COPD....a respiratory ailment, a disease that kills many. Yet she is in such early stages of the disease that it has not effected the quality of her life, she has many avenues open to her if she were willing to explore them. If she were willing to discover the nitty gritty details of her illness, discover the many possibilities that exist to maintain a fine quality of life for many more years to come. This illness is the only fact I know about her life.

What my intuition informed me of her though, is that she is lonely, very lonely, she is unsure of her future, yet not willing to explore within herself to find her many possibilities. She looks outward to satisfy her inner needs.

Looking outwardly for satisfaction of uncertainty is the easiest for many. If we spend too much time looking inward, we may find things about ourselves that we do not like....and once that happens.....then we might have to do some deeper self-examination, and make some changes.

Changing our inner selves takes work. Work of a kind that is harder than even the most intense physical labor.....change within also does not afford one with that feeling of immediate gratification of a job well done.

Change within is a never ending process. We may have moments, those phenomenally exciting moments when we realize that we have reached a plateau along the journey of becoming who we want to be. But those of us that explore our inner depths, also know that we have not reached that pinnacle of becoming. Although I am not entirely sure we ever reach that culminating point of becoming the best human being we can be. Exactly because we are human.

I used to believe that the ultimate place to be in my life, as a human being, a kind, loving human being would be the place I call serenity.

So what does reaching a serenity of being mean to me?

Comfort, acceptance with me, who I am.

Confidence, a sureness that I will do the most true, right thing in any given situation.

Tranquility, an inner peace that develops as I grow, as I learn to give to, and fully accept those I love for being who they are.

Serenity is the awareness that I am being the best being I can be, the awareness that I will make mistakes, the awareness that I am simple one divine human being among many.

At least that is what it means to me today. I could change my mind tomorrow.....but that very changeableness.....is huge part of who I am. A flawed human being seeking serenity.

8 comments:

Fiona said...

Sunny...you met my mother??!!! You described here to a T there!!!

I like this post too....I need to chew on it a bit because all I could think of when I read it was...you met my mother!!!

But there is so much more there....for a quieter moment.

Big hugs!!!

Sunny Delight said...

Welcome Home! Missed you so much!

In some ways she is my mother and father too, so many I have met or known that...hmmmm....not sure of my thought process here...perhaps they fear to look to deep.... because it would be too painful???

Fiona said...

Serenity for me is:

That feeling of calm, conscious calm, not accidental calm.

Knowing my world and all in it are safe.

Feeling loved without making any effort.

Those moments when I understand myself.

And so much more that I find hard to describe.

LePhare said...

You've made me think again. I might have had serenity once.....but not at the moment.

Sunny Delight said...

Fi, I think I may know what you mean, I have never thought of it as conscious calm, but there have been moments (rare unfortunately) when I have realized I had an internal calmness, no matter what was going on around me, I was at my center peaceful.

It is hard isn't it?



Ian, you have so much going on in your life just to get through each day, I do not know how you have the time for anything else. I hope things are settling down for you.

A hug for both of you!

Fiona said...

woo hoo threesome hug!!!!

it is difficult to quantify the feelings, you just know them when you feel them :)

LePhare said...

Three way hug? Count me in....... pleeeeease.

Sunny Delight said...

Opening my arms wide!