Once there was a king who longed for a work of art to which he could awake each morning and that would inspire him with a deep sense of peace to begin his day in service to his kingdom. He contacted two artists and told them, “I am looking for a painting that will inspire me each morning with peace to serve those in my kingdom. You each have a week to paint a picture for me. The artist’s whose painting I choose will hang in my bedroom.” A week later the artists returned.
The first artist unveiled his painting. It was a lake with calm waters and snow capped mountains in the distance. The sky was blue and filled with billowy clouds. The king replied, “Ah, certainly just looking at this picture makes me feel a sense of calm and peace. You have certainly artistically well portrayed peace.”
The second artist unveiled his painting. It was of dark colors, angry storm clouds in the sky and churning waters in the lake below. To the side of the picture was a steep cliff with sharp, rocky sides. The king was taken aback, “Do you dare make a mockery of what I had requested? Surely this does not bespeak peace to me, but chaos and darkness. This is not a scene that would inspire me each morning.”
The artist listened and then said to the king, “Look carefully at the cliff.” The king noticed in a small cleft of the rocky cliff was a dove, safe from the angry storm and turbulent waters. “Aha,” the king replied, “certainly you have artistically portrayed the wisdom of peace. This will be the painting I choose for the royal bedroom to inspire me each morning to best serve all those within my kingdom.”
True peace can never be found in the externals for in the externals is found the chaos of life. Externals will often disappoint. True peace is found within. It is cultivated from within. Violence has rocked our country these past several weeks leaving many of us to say, “where is the peace?”. Peace begins with each of us one by one discovering it within and extending it to those persons in our corners of the world. Peace within is the antidote to the tension external…how will you cultivate peace?
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other.”
St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
