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Reflecting on solutions and "who’s peacing who?"
I loved this photograph I found on a blog called One Million Peace Signs. The commentary asks, “Who’s peacing who?” Reflections of peace in two mirrors, and one of the reflectors is also the photographer!
Peace, my friend, often requires reflection, a luxury for many of us whose lives are too scheduled to make time for such an activity of Being, not doing.
I had an irritating silliness this week. Someone I work with didn’t like what she perceived to be my tone in an email. She mentioned it, then went on and on about it, without making a request of me. Finally, I asked how she wanted it changed in the future, and she couldn’t give me an answer. For the sake of peace, I assured her that it, whatever it was, wouldn’t happen again, and then I let it go. The next morning I got a call from that same colleague; she was upset at our exchange the night before. She spent another 30 minutes talking to me about her reaction to my reaction.
This is rehashing instead of reflecting. Rehashing earlier peace strategies is a useless tactic. What we needed to do was choose peace together in this email tone scenario. My colleague wasn’t playing. Upset, she still couldn’t ask for what she wanted—because she didn’t know!
Here is where reflection comes in, especially when it comes to peace. Reflection is necessary when we don’t know what we want, and we want to discover what we want. My colleague would have been better off to shut her office door and reflect upon what she wanted before she called me.
One of the things I really liked about the One Million Peace Signs blog was the word play. Here are a few of the phrases I found: Peace stare, peace dare, peace prose, peace pix, peace spew, peace owl, peace eyes, peace scan, peace doodles, peace heart, peace out and, my favorite, peace wise.
For me, the nature of peace is wise in itself. It takes all people, factors and circumstances into consideration—even those I can’t see! In searching for the peace-wise solution, both my colleague and I could have saved an hour.
Who’s peacing who?
Visit Dr. Susan Corso’s website or subscribe to Seeds at www.susancorso.com.
Especially in this computer age, it's so easy to react or to assume that someone or something else will think for us. While there are a great many tasks we can parcel out to colleagues, friends and even computers, there is no outsourcing your discovery of your own personal needs!
posted by ansorensen on 4/13/2009 2:18 pm