Peace: Get Used to it.
Last month, several members of our family visited Chalk Creek Canyon, just southwest of Buena Vista, Colorado. The area's known for its 14,000-ft mountains, hot springs, white-water rafting and ghost towns. The early portions of the canyon's northern wall are a dramatic Kaolinite-white as they rise toward Mt. Princeton. While there is much big and dramatic to see in the canyon, it was something little and quiet that impressed me . . . and got me thinking:
Cascades on Chalk Creek
One point to visit in the canyon is the Cascades, where Chalk Creek waters vigorously tumble and dive over boulders and stone on their way to less steep terrain and eventually the Arkansas River, the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico. The Cascades were impressive this year, with higher volumes of water than usual, thanks to a wetter-than-normal winter at higher elevations, and they roared enthusiastically. But right along side of all the pummeling, rushing, exciting water, there was that gently undulating creek-side pool. A little water was coming in, but the rock that surrounded it, protected it from the hustling pace and mad dash of its watery fellows, and it was living peacefully under the trees.
Globalization and technology have created a never-ending day. We always knew, from our perspective, that the sun never stopped, it just kept moving across the face of the earth. It never has paused at the international date line to mark another day down. The sun doesn't care about day and doesn't know night. (I have heard that it does want to experience night, but whenever it tries to peak just above the horizon of the earth–just to get a quick peak of the dark, night is always gone. Reminds me of that 80s movie Ladyhawke.) Now, we are discovering what the sun always knew: time is not broken into increments of earth rotation, but is linear and continuous, ever hustling us forward. Technology now links us to the world constantly, both physically and digitally.
World competition brings a perceived greater need to work longer, rest less—no longer must we just keep up the Jones next door, but with the Chinese and the Koreans and the rest of the Asians and the Europeans and the Brazilians and, some day, the Africans. But of course, we can't just keep up; since we have been ahead since the end of World War II, we must stay ahead. We're ever in a panic: It's a zero-sum game! There's not enough to go around. We've got to get our share before anyone else. But take comfort in knowing that we have technology on our side: We can gossip with friends constantly; watch and worry about the Dow Jones incessantly; listen to "our" music continually; review our spreadsheets relentlessly, and read at any time day or night why we should hate or love the current president and track every hint of who might be the president we'll hate or love next. Most importantly, we'll voraciously consume news of the latest technology trends, so we can be the first to buy the newest gadget–so we can keep doing all of this and more. We no longer are limited to just morning to dusk, we can do it all whenever the sun is shining anywhere in the world. It's stressful just to write about it.
Quiet Pool by Cascades
Then I remember the Cascades, and that small, gently undulating pool at its side. Fresh water still coming in, but it doesn't wash away the essence of the pool. It stays there; small, refreshed, peaceful.
Unless we consciously and personally manage our interactions with the world around us, we will be caught up in the wash of gravity over the boulders and stone. We will hurl ourselves down with all the others toward some distant place we can't yet know of, and we won't ever know that we have another choice.
It all screams for placing rocks around us, like that little pool in Chalk Creek Canyon, to protect us from the cascades of the world, giving us time for the things that make us human and bring us happiness and peace. Time for thought, study, self-reflection, prayer, worship, family, friends, service and love. Each of us is left to answer for ourselves: What rocks can I put around my life, so fresh water comes in, but the essence of who I am is not washed away by an ever more rapidly running world? It's in taking control of our lives and filling them with that which matters most that we can find the lost luxury of peace? Peace has a bad rap right now: It's boring. Where's the stimulation in peace? Where's all the activity? Where are the results? We need results! But, if we put up wise protecting rocks around our lives, I think we'll find that even in today's world, peace is not boring; you just need to get used to it.
