finding peace

Here I am thinking that 2013 is still so young, and yet it's almost February.  My plate is piled high with all sorts of things, possibly the highest it's ever been.  The semester has been ramping up, and things will continue to be busy until the summer...a five month long Thanksgiving dinner, you could say.  I go half mad when I'm not busy, so in some ways, this is a good thing.

Not totally unrelatedly, of late I've been thinking about how we find personal peace.  I was reading Ask Mormon Girl, this post in particular, and was thinking about how folks deal with personal problems.  Generally, we face two facets of any problem: how to find personal peace, and how to act.  While they are somewhat dependent on each other, I think that we can tease them apart more often than we actually do.  In doing so, I think we'll come to solutions faster.

For some problems, finding peace is surprisingly easier than coming up with a full-blown plan of action.  Then, once you're at peace, the problem matters less and thus the particular course of action isn't so important.

At church, I was recently called to work with the young women, ages 14 and 15.  Two weeks ago, I challenged them to identify negative emotions (anger, fear, jealousy, etc.) that they felt throughout the week, acknowledge that they didn't want to feel that way, and then to pray for peace and comfort.  I was thoroughly surprised when they reported back this past Sunday having succeeded in replacing anger with peace.  (Though I should have had more faith in them.)

I'm going to need to stay centered this semester, keeping my own peace at some pretty high levels.  My plan of action?  Prayer, meditation, exercise, and reading good books.  And, you know, doing my actual work.  Wish me luck!