Forces

A peaceful mind is more productive than a restless one, these are the words I just read. Seems obvious enough of a statement and it has me contemplating, after a restless disturbed night of sleep, that there is a war unseen and definitely felt inside of each man, each woman. Competing thoughts attempting domination, some driven toward destruction of the human, some wooing to higher heights, to soaring the Heavenlies. Age old, the forces rage~good verses evil death grips and holds when restlessness abounds and joyful lightness when the peace that surpasses all understanding settles dove like on the soul. C.S. Lewis wrote a brilliant book called The Screwtape Letters and I recall reading it and getting one of my first glimpses of insight into the spiritual conquest that demons engage in for souls. Believe yea or not in the spiritual realm, you cannot deny that at times, you are troubled and at other times, you cannot explain your happiness, your inclination to laughter and even glee. I saw three dead bodies this past week, funeral homes for two of them and one laid out on a side walk in plain view, a pink sheet covering someone who used to be...near by, there were three police cars and three police officers and they were laughing. The contrast of the appalling seen, the shock of seeing a body in clear view with others talking, laughing and joking near by jolted me. I have great sympathy for the officers, the first on seen responders to the physically broken, wounded and dead. They are our keepers of the clean, the ones that don't tell, don't talk about horrors they have witnessed and the imagery and sounds that have been planted in their heads and hearts. Maybe we need to see death more, maybe we need to appreciate what we have more, maybe we need to fight the good fight ourselves and refuse the indulgences of negative self talk, self crisitism, comparison to others and all forms of self abuse? The dark side is in each man, each woman, it is easy to travel the corridors of our own haunted houses and a slow dying awaits each time we agree to stay entombed there. Our greatest God given gift is life, this strange thing that you and I wake up to everyday. What will capture your heart and mind today? I look for peace this day and in the looking, I shall find.