I suspect there are things that will open to gentleness and peacefulness that will not open to power, that will respond to a humble question rather than an I-need-to-prove-I’m-right answer.

These are qualities that I long to express.

Richard Rohr holds out:

‘Love is not something you do; love is someone you are.’*

Anne Lamott says something similar about mercy:

‘Mercy means compassion, empathy, a heart for someone’s troubles.  It’s not something you do – it is something in you, accessed, revealed, or cultivated through use, like a muscle.’**

I think that peacefulness and gentleness must grow around love and mercy, these desires that aim for relationship and communion with others.   So, I suspect, they too are what I am, not what I do.  What I desire doesn’t come easy.

They are cultivated through use and openness, which most likely means in difficult moments when things are harsh or conflicting – interrupting things, distracting things, when we feel we have least time.  I’ve got things to do, you know. So I avoid, make my excuses.  Move on.  Or …

… pursue the future I hope for.

We become what we give our time to, I guess.

(*From Richard Rohr’s The Divine Dance.)
(**From Anne Lamott’s Hallelujah Anyway.)