This struck a chord in me...
by Holly LanesmithA couple of weeks ago when Holly was traveling up to Toronto to take the boys up to Canada, I snuck away on my own little getaway.
I got out into nature for just a little bit…. I haven’t done this in a long time, and I had forgotten how powerful this really is.
...To get out in nature, to be in nature, and to be still in nature.
I was touring a retreat center in rural Mississippi with my good friends, Alice Givens, Jenna Armato, and Barbara Britt.
Here is a photo of me and Alice touring the beautiful grounds of the retreat center in Mississippi.
It was Alice who had persuaded me that I really needed to come to check this place out as a potential location for a future event… we’ll see what happens there ;)
When I arrived in Mississippi, first of all, can I say one word? Community.
I just love this community. I love the people. These are my people. You are my people.
I love being around people who are just real—who are honest about the good times and the bad, the celebrations and the struggles—just real people.
And I’m telling you if you don’t have those kinds of people in your life, then you really need to plug into the Empowered Living Community.
But anyway, as I was saying… the next day, after spending the evening visiting and having dinner together, we went for a drive to this retreat center, which was about 40 minutes outside the closest city.
And my, oh, my, what a special place this is indeed!
As we walked around and saw the grounds and the different facilities, the beauty of it struck me deeply.
It’s so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of work and life, doing the next thing, going to the next place, meeting with the next person, having the next call...
But slowing down even for a few minutes or a few hours and going to a place where it’s as if you can feel your soul singing for the first time in a long time... where it’s like you can hear the voice of God speaking to you audibly and intimately...where you can just feel at peace with who you are, where you’re at in life, what’s going on—the good and the bad—and you can be still...
There is something SO important about soaking in the stillness of a moment like that.
It reminds me of the very last paragraph in the book As a Man Thinketh by James Allen.
He writes this:
“Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know this: in the ocean of life, the aisles of Blessedness are smiling, and the sunning shore of your ideal awaits your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the bark of your soul reclines the commanding Master; He does but sleeps: wake Him. Self-control is strength; Right Thought is mastery; Calmness is power. Say unto your heart, “Peace be still!”
So let me end with just a note of encouragement.
If you’re feeling like you’re one of those tempest-tossed souls as James Allen writes—someone who is in struggle, being thrown around by the wind and the waves of the storms of life—just know that even you have within you the “commanding Master,” that part of you that’s in direct communion with God, with Source, with the universe (whatever title you want to assign to your higher power). Direct communion and direct communication.
And at any moment you can choose to wake him (or her), and simply give yourself the command, and say unto your heart, “peace, be still!”
The trials of life aren’t about to go away, but you have a choice as to how you respond to them.
And if turmoil is where you’re at, know that peace is available to you.
Say unto your heart, “peace, be still!”