Pat’s name came up in a discussion the other day.  She’s a friend I don’t see very often, but when I do, I always wish I could spend more time with her.  She makes me smile.

Several years ago I was all wound up about who knows what when we met for lunch.  After listening to me vent for 10 minutes straight, she laughed and smiled and said, “Oh well”.

“Oh well?  Are you kidding me?  This is not good,” I whined.

“Honestly, Suzette, what can you do about it?”

After a pause to get up from that knock down, I grinned. “Absolutely nothing.”

I just finished a book by Debbie Macomber, One Perfect Word.  The premise is to take a word to study and focus on for a whole year.  She evidently has done this for 20 some odd years.   I decided to take a word a month.  A year might wear me out.

So the word this month has been peace.  It’s been a bit painful which really doesn’t sound right.  But just like Pat asking me what I could do about my seemingly hopeless situation, I have been reminded what snatches my peace is mostly junk I can do nothing about.

I’ve discovered I hand my peace over to people I don’t even know at the Walmart Supercenter, at the license bureau, and the post office.  I hand my peace over to a computer or a long hold on the phone with an insurance company.  I hand my peace over to tourists from Iowa who drive 30 in a 45mph zone.  How dare I do that?  It’s my own stinking fault.

I’ve learned why it’s called peace of mind … because that’s really the only place peace exists.  Our perspective about a situation, not the situation itself, is where peace begins. It’s simply a decision to let it go and one I have to make several times hourly.  For me it will likely be a lifetime of giving it away and taking it back. I’m a slow learner.

Maybe when I’m really old peace will just be a part of who I am.  Maybe.

Now to decide what the next word of the month should be.

“A heart at peace gives life to the body…”   ~Proverbs 14:30

photo credit: stockfreeeimages.com