Inner peace
There is nothing I desire more than inner peace. The feeling of being completely at ease with myself, being at one with God, with the universe. The world could go on turning in deranged circles, yet I will be unmoved. When I was in primary school, the boys would play soccer and chatek during recess, the girls would skip ropes and play zero-point, and I, I would be sitting by myself reading Tang poetry by the field, or off to the garden to see the flora and caged-up fauna (poor creatures they were, they didn't last very long). I was different, yet completely at peace. I was never part of the mainstream world. I never fancied the rat-race. But I'm not a hermit, my friends can vouch for that, haha.
Perhaps achieving inner peace means cutting yourself off temporarily from the hustle and bustle of this world, and listening to the deepest depths of your being. Listen to that primal voice. What does it say? Too often ourselves and others around drown out the voice that longs to be heard, echoing from the valleys of our soul. Don't get caught in the madding crowd. Listen to that voice.
I find a lot of peace from singing and listening to the meditative chants of Taizé. For those who wish to know more, visit the Taizé website. I just passed a Heart Sutra CD (I'm not Buddhist but my listening taste can be very eclectic) to Jacs, hoping he will derive some peace from it, but unfortunately it gave him a headache. Oops.
