To be at peace is to accept all things

'Cannot be late, I watch and wait,

 The iron hands keep moving,

 Always in time, always feeling fine,

 My grandfather's clock is tocking.

 For it is a trickster in every way,

 I know it runs slow, its gears are ground low,

 But no matter when I look, it's the right time of day.

 I toil and boil as quarter til goes half past,

 I blur then I focus with my chronographic locus.

 We move along without unnecessary haste,

 Waiting for the other to wince.

 I sat down here, I thought an hour ago,

 but truly it was ten hours since.

 For this clock never lies,

 It watches and it spies,

 Waiting to reveal, in systematic motion,

 It's itching appeal, its surfacing notion.

 What I ask, when I ask, forever it just ticks on.

 I revel in it, I wretch and I crumble

 As I sit and watch my time grow closer.

 Tell me this, oh clock on the wall,

 Why do we pay so much attention as we fall?

 Is it curiosity or perverted desire?

 A necessary fuel for our innermost fire?

 We wander so much, and trip so often,

 It makes me wonder if we can be open

 To a world without pain and without struggle.

 Can we really live in such a place,

 Where one of our greatest joys is not written on our face?

 But it is now my time to pass,

 I hope that I do not seem crass,

 as I lay here and count down the ticks and the tocks,

 watching and thinking about grandfather's clocks.'

Peace is a very relative term. Peace is whatever seems calm and restful in comparison to motion. As we look further and further into the Universe, we are going to have to ask ourselves the inevitable question. If everything getting larger LOOKS slower.... will it, by all of our ability to measure, actually do so if we look far enough? What is the visible difference between stopping and starting... if you ever come to a halt, you often end up questioning if it truly is the last halt, you're almost forced to. But see, at a moment of cessation, we are able to infer what is going on through our knowledge. Our knowledge is the understanding of all information we have gathered. But what is it to gather this information?

Normally, this gathering happens by selective process. You get information about what you like, avoid hearing about what you don't. There's plenty of information to gather this way, especially if your opinion of like and dislike, or right and wrong, changes as you learn. But let me ask this.... what is the next step? Where do you go from there? Once you accept everything that you consider right, how do you gain more information? Naturally, you start seeking for more sources, but what of the obvious one? The one still right in front of you? If we stop and start listening to the "wrong"... maybe we'll find some value or knowledge in it. But then, how do we do this? How do we knowingly accept information which we perceive as wrong? It's possible, but difficult and frustrating.

There is a way though, as there always is. The simplest way to be able to accept information which we perceive as wrong is to stop perceiving it as such. If we can find a way to stop the information from seeming wrong in comparison to everything else we've heard, it becomes very easy to digest. How does one do this, though? It's actually really easy. You just have to listen to any new information solely as information without judging it. You can judge it later. It is important to judge things, in the long run... right way to use a gun.... wrong way to use a gun. Because information is applicable to the real world in some way. So it is necessary for us to categorize it as proper or improper. But it is not necessary to categorize it on the receiving phase when we first listen to the information.

If we do not consider information right or wrong to begin with, it is given equal chance among all other ideas and information. The way I feel is that the idea not spoken is the idea not given a chance. If you squelch a voice based on its past behaviours and its credibility or lack thereof, it cannot be heard. If the voice, or idea, cannot be heard, it is not given an equal chance. Everything I say is based on this perspective.

As we investigate this state of mind further, we find that the basic labels of "right" and "wrong" are at once very fluid, and unnecessary if we are mindful. We do not need to avoid every stove because we know it can burn us, just the hot element. We do not need to avoid every fight with a loved one because it can damage our relationship, just the damage the fight can do. If we were to always operate with regard to what the repercussions of our actions are, we would do nothing but improve over time.

In the end what we can understand is that acceptance is happiness. Inability or refusal of acceptance is not happiness. We grieve the loss of a loved one precisely until the moment we accept the loss of them and move on. We feel guilty so long as we refuse to accept the negativity of our actions, likely because we ourselves believe them to be wrong. Frustration comes when anything you do bites you on your own ass. It is through acceptance of these things that we can dissolve the things that are not happiness. It is through understanding of their lessons which we can learn without harm. All is well with the Universe.