How can a person reconnect with the light in their soul when his or her heart is overcome with the madness and noise of the world? How does a person free themselves from the uncertainties of life and root out the weeds that crowd and contaminate their inner path?

The conflicts, the negativity, the brutish behavior and the many small sorrows we witness every day, every hour, disrupt and warp the focus of the seeker, but perhaps therein lies the work.

It is difficult, I know, to be at peace in this rocky, tarnished, upturned world where reckless claims and incessant outrages bellow out from the screens of the world.

But peace is at hand. Peace is always at hand. There is a way to reclaim what is lost. A calm heart is always within reach, if it is sought in earnest.

Think on this:

Each leaf and stone, each ocean and star, each soul and mind has its place in this wondrous universe.

The lion lives on the savanna. The chimp explores the heights of the tree, while the leaf flutters on its branch. The rose sways in the breeze, as does the poppy, the sunflower, and fields of wheat. A fish breathes within the ocean wave, a tide created by the pull of the moon. The flag tussles in the wind, while the bird lifts and dances upon its current. Our dear planet sweeps through its orbit, beckoned by the intimate force of our sun. So, too, do the stars, ad infinitum, sail along their own special circuit through the cosmos.

But people are different. You and I are different. We can choose to rest our minds upon any plane we wish. Each person, whether he or she lives in a village, a town, in a city, in a large family or lives quite alone, each is far more than they appear on the outside. On the inside, each person, that is, you and I, and everyone we have ever known, everyone who has ever existed, being simple or complex, innocent or blemished in numerous ways, can exist in full awareness, on other levels, on higher planes. There is not a man or woman alive that has not the breath of love to sustain him or her through their brief trip to Earth, and each of us may know that love as a real and permanent force. You and I are of *Spirit*. Though our bodies die, we are each immortal, and we may realize this truth while we struggle through the noise, through the chaos and commotion that seeks to upturn us.

To experience the ground of our true being requires work; it requires trust, virtue, and ambition, but the experience can be had within the space of a single breath. It can mine, just as it can be yours. It rests within each moment, even this moment. With only a slight turn of the mind, a person may lift into the land of love, into the plane of purity, onto a level of limitless belonging. Allow the planes to merge and for reality to expand. So begins the prayer:

I exist in spirit, and spirit exists in me.

I exist in love, and love resides in me.  

I exist in light, and light shines through me.

I exist in truth, and truth rests in me.

I exist in God, and God exists in me.

Let it be so.