.png)
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
we aren't here
to be stagnant
we are here to make a splash
~ john roedel
(photo by Sabri Tuzcu)