Find Peace Wherever You Are

Cairn at Biddeford Pool, Maine.

Generally I like little latitude beaches with white sand and warm, really warm, water. So I wasn't sure how much I'd miss my southern beach when I traveled up to Maine this past summer.

My beach is a five minute bicycle ride from my house. The beach in Maine was 14 miles and 25 minutes away by car. That's really nothing considering I used to live 100 miles and a two hour drive away from the ocean. But for a person who uses the sea as a tool for meditation, self reflection, and just a moral boost in general, it seemed like, well, it seemed like an ocean away. So it came as a surprise to me when I sat by the sea at Maine's Biddeford Pool that I found the same kind of peace I was used to walking by the water's edge in South Florida.

Looking back I've come to realize that my inner being, my soul if you will, scanned the scenery for beauty regardless of temperature or water color. Beauty is beauty. And the soul craves beauty. I think it was John O'Donohue who said that (or some version of that) and he was right. There is beauty in everything.

This morning I counseled a young woman, fraught with anxiety, to stop every 30 minutes to examine her surroundings. I told her,

"Look for the small miracles surrounding you - the ones that are often overlooked because we just don't make the time to see them." 

Then I sent her a photo of a plant stripped of all its leaves because the caterpillars had eaten them all. What others might see as an ugly plant was, to me, beautiful especially since the plant was already at work making new leaves.

Some may see slimy algae and weird seaweed.
I see  six different shades of green and a multitude of textures.
Tidal pool in the rocks at Biddeford Pool, Maine.

Today I invite you to find beauty in everything you look at. It's there. You just have to look for it and when you do, you'll find a moment of peace. From this moment will arise another moment of peace and then another, and another until you find yourself being more at peace than in conflict. And that's a wonderful way to live.

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Books about finding our peace at the beach.