Sunset's Serenity and Perspective's Power: Join My 365-Day Peaceful Photo Challenge
DAY 169. Living with irrevocable differences and curating peace through contemplative photography.
February 17, 2025
My sons live with the incurable progressive illness Cystic Fibrosis (CF).
A friend recently had surgery for long-term kidney disease.
Two individuals I know are battling CF and cancer.
Another with CF had a double lung transplant a week ago.
Another friend wants her mom back, and yet another wants her dad back – both parents gone too soon.
And me? Well, I have irrevocable differences of my own.
However, when I consider the power, practice, and peace messages Nature bestows daily, I am assured that I lack nothing.
"Either the gods have power, or they don't. If they don't, why pray? If they do, then why not pray for something else instead of for things to happen or not to happen? Pray not to feel fear. Or desire or grief. If the gods can do anything, they can surely do that for us." ~ Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9:40
Whether it is Nature, the Almighty, the Master Creator, the gods, or our minds, the power of contemplation, prayer, and faith in something greater than ourselves makes life’s challenges bearable.
The radiance and tranquility of these sunset photos remind us of Nature's ability to offer us space, softening, serenity, mental reshaping, and salvation amid our struggles.
This 365-Day Peaceful Photo Challenge is a testament to finding and appreciating Nature's moments of peace and beauty.
These moments strengthen us and allow us to breathe, rest, make meaning of, and navigate life's irrevocable differences.
As Aurelius further counsels, we must not be passively controlled by what is not, as though puppeteered by some external force or power.
Instead, we must accept the Nature of things and fate and pray for or seek better control of our minds. Rather than pray to get, we can pray to stop wanting. Rather than getting rid of, we can pray to stop trying. Rather than save our child, we can pray for the removal of fear.
In all these, the peace of accepting the transience of things becomes long-lasting.
How do you curate peace?