Serenity - What Do You Do For Peace?

[Calamity Kris]

I was awakened this morning to a thunderous rain shower. After it subsided, I watched the raindrops create a gentle dance in the leaves of the large oak tree out back. Somewhere through all this, I heard a church bell peal in the distance. A pair of deer stopped by to snack on the freshly rain kissed leaves. The next time I looked at the clock, it was several hours later but I felt really at peace and in a better place.

 

What do you do for peace.

[Gunner Gatlin, SASS 10274L]

Pray.

 

GG

[Strawboss, SASS #28759]

Read,cook and ride my motorcycle, but not at the same time! Cooking though has taken a back seat as I'm working out again and losing some weight.

[DocWard]

I can think of any number of times I have found the type of peace and serenity you describe. I can find it through meditation, but meditation can also be challenging as well, when the mind refuses to cooperate and remains active.

 

I have found myself lost in the moment and at peace while sitting by a campfire, listening to whip-poor-wills calling while the stars are so close they seem you could reach out and touch them. I've also found it in the quiet of a military post on a Sunday after retreat and the lowering of the flag, when it seems there is nothing moving, save the wind. I've also found it sitting and watching the sun rise on the Arabian / Persian Gulf, when the colors reflected the reds and oranges of the rising sun.

 

As I sit here, I can think of many times when I have been tranquil, despite being in surprising non-tranquil sounding locations. I can say that, other than meditation, they most often involve the quiet peace of nature.

[Sparky Nelson]

I pray, if I need peace from what's going on inside my head. Other times I think of people I know and love, and remember happy times with the ones I miss.

 

But a thunderstorm in the night or early morning is as near to Heaven as I can get and still get out of bed in the morning. To hear and see the raw power but still feel safe in His hands. Now that's a peaceful feeling.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

I find it back in the mountains. I consider myself luck to still be able to carry a 35-lb. pack back in the backcountry. Did it for the first time this season last weekend. We do a lot of one-night overnight hikes during the summer. I feel a lot of peace on those dark, or moonlight, nights far from the crowd.

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

The sound of a rushing river or stream will do it for me. Especially when the leaves are falling and show red and yellow.

 

Campfires work as well as falling snow, and a walk down a dirt road to nowhere in a country setting. Or a vista of the snow covered mountains in the near distance.

 

These are the times that I feel His presence close to me.

[Utah Bob #35998]

When I find it, l'll let ya know.

[The Shoer 27979]

about 13 years ago I went on an over night adventure with my son and his Cub Scout troop. We spent the night on the USS Hornett, It is tied up at dock at the Alameda Navel Station. I got up before sunrise like I always do, went and found the vending machines for one of those loose cup of coffee that come out of them. Went back to where everyone was still sleeping. Went out onto one of those gun decks and looked out on the Bay. It was total calm on the bay water was almost like glass. The blueish gray of early morning light, my coffee,water as smooth as glass, and nobody else around (more like awake) at that moment in time everything in life was right

[Shorty Jack Hammer]

This one may sound odd, but I was never a hand loader until CAS.... I figured I'll just do it to save money, but now that I do it, I've decided to reload some of my other calibers because it's fun.......anyways, odd as it seems, it's kind of therapeutic and peaceful. However I've been know to walk into the woods and find a nice place to just sit and ponder the wonder of it all.

[Anvil Al #59168]

Go out and mess with the horses.

Even if I can't ride. Just grooming them is relaxing

and takes my mind away from everything else.

[evil dogooder]

Three ways for me. One just sit out in nature and melt away.

 

 

Long range pistol shooting. Fixed sighted revolvers at 200- 400 yards. Every once in a while really stretching it out.

Focusing that hard makes the world go away.

 

Classical music

[Dusty Balz, SASS#46599]

Take a glider up and surf the ridge over Sundance Dancing on the thermals with hawks and eagles no sound but the wind around me

 

A lone ride on Sage in the wilderness

 

An empty and twisty highway on my Indian

 

 

Tossing flies at trout in a mountain stream

 

 

The Rocky Mountains are good for your soul.

[Henry T Harrison]

A quiet camp fire and a little Bourbon work wonders

[Henry T Harrison]

Surprisingly I find the greatest peace in a place known for anything but peace. When things are at their worst I head for Gettysburg. The sacrifices made there always make my problems seem miniscule Usually I can find a quiet spot to meditate and recharge my spiritual batteries

[DocWard]

This one may sound odd, but I was never a hand loader until CAS.... I figured I'll just do it to save money, but now that I do it, I've decided to reload some of my other calibers because it's fun.......anyways, odd as it seems, it's kind of therapeutic and peaceful. However I've been know to walk into the woods and find a nice place to just sit and ponder the wonder of it all.

 

It doesn't sound odd at all. One of the other things I do is to work at building models. I find it therapeutic and peaceful as well.

[Ruff]

I go to the books. Rather a bookstore or a library I find peace among all those words.

 

When I lived in CA, I would take a drive to Lake Tahoe, usually up highway 50 then drive around the lake, loop upto I-80 and then home. I miss the mountains, that is one thing I really hate about FL, no scenery.

[Calamity Kris]

When I find it, l'll let ya know.

 

I pray that you do, Bob.

[SOUTH-PACIFIC,SASS #59402]

as docward said sunset on military bases makes for a special calm every thing goes to the quiet mode and setting on the fantail after colors with following seas in the south pacific ocean with nothing but clear skyes all around. this tread sparked some good memories. but that was yesterday . tomorrow I am looking forward to sitting in the camp ground at end of trail looking up at the sky after sunset see youall there

[Gunner Gatlin, SASS 10274L]

 

I pray that you do, Bob.

Amen.

 

GG

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

Deer stand on a clear chilled November morning with lots of birds and other wildlife appearing. Doesn't even have to include deer. An old cigar to chew on helps!

[Michigan Slim]

I'm one of those that has a mind that races thru problems when it shouldn't. I find it hard to stop sometimes. BUT, morning coffee at our cabin, watching the deer, listening to the birds wake up. Family still asleep or my wife there listening too.

The most 'at peace' I have ever felt though was watching my new baby sleep in my arms, smelling his hair. But that was many years ago.

Enjoy those special moments when they come folks. They can be too rare.

[Noz]

Sitting quietly on our porch with my partner of almost 55 years, 53 of them married.

[Dirty Dan Dawkins]

Read, pray, garden, tend chickens and bees

[Yul Lose]

Some of my most peaceful times over the last several years are early in the morning at EOT sitting at my post at the front gate before anyone has started to arrive. It's usually chilly, even in mid to late June and the sun is just starting to rise over the ridge to the east. I find that to be a very tranquil, peaceful, beautiful setting and I guess that's one of the things that brings me back to EOT every year.

[Grizzly Dave]

Like others, I pray. I try to focus on others.

 

Sometimes I practice relaxation exercises that MIz Grizz used to teach when she taught natural child birth classes.

[Blackwater 53393]

I'm likely the real odd duck here. I find peace on a twisty mountain road driving or riding as fast and as far as I can! Speed has always been my stress release and when I'm through I can sleep dreamlessly for hours. I used to drag race, but the short burst of maximum acceleration finally didn't last long enough nor did it repeat soon enough to satisfy.

 

I can sleep anytime, but to sleep without dreams just seems to let my mind relax.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Red Horse Ranger spoke of hand loading.

Aye, I'll agree.

Helps me bring order into at least a little part of a disordered universe.

Calligraphy works for me: bordering a sheet, laying out the text, dipping a metal quill in good India ink and forming letters that have not commonly been drawn in a millennium.

[Rye Miles #13621]

I go for a walk or bike ride and end up at the park beach in town here and sit and look at Lake Erie. Very calming affect watching the waves and lake gulls and other wildlife hangin' out on the lake.

 

Rye

[Cheyenne Culpepper 32827]

get on my face before the Holy One, ask for his help and Comforter, and admit I can't do it on my own.....

[Utah Bob #35998]

To clarify:

I have found serenity on occasion.

 

But if we're talking peace.. I doubt I wil find it in this lifetime. Maybe too much water under the bridge, as the song goes.

[Calico Mary]

unfortunately for me serenity only comes about one weekend a year...and that's if the weather doesn't ruin it....but every late September I head for the mountains and a grove of aspens in all their autumn golden splendor....nothing closer to heaven on earth than that.....

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

To clarify:

I have found serenity on occasion.

 

But if we're talking peace.. I doubt I wil find it in this lifetime. Maybe too much water under the bridge, as the song goes.

I think a lot of us have a past like that. Most of us have been able to make peace with it in the knowledge that the things we've done were for the greater good. You're a good man. Sometimes good men do things that they wish they didn't have to.

I feel certain that you did the same. Take heart, and let your concerns go. Your peace is there if you let it in.