I've often heard people making comments like, "Whew! I really have to walk a tightrope in this situation!" Most often the tightrope they are walking is a relationship tightrope. If they lose their balance to the left or right the relationship takes a tumble, like Jack and Jill, down hill.
Relationship tightrope walking is very painful. There is constant fear present. "If I slip up, this whole arrangement is going to fall apart." "If I say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing, I'll be taking a dive from joy down into suffering."
What rational person would choose tightrope walking?
But wait! What if there was a place of perfect balance called the "peace line" and I could learn to stay balanced on this peace line all day long no matter what is happening?
In a way the peace line could be said to be somewhere midway between being thrilled and being down in the dumps, between feeling excited and feeling lost. In fact many people whip past the peace line so fast they don't even recognize it as their lives wildly fling back and forth between short-lived excitement and gnawing absence of fulfillment.
Most people seek to escape the feeling of emptiness by running after excitement. A person who stays on the peace line never feels emptiness and has no reason to crave excitement. Instead of walking jittery swinging tightropes that ruin relationships, walking the peace line keeps my relationships in balance because it keeps me in balance.
This week I vow to walk no other tightrope but the peace line in relationships. Upon awakening each day I take some time to search for the exquisite feeling of peace that can be found inside myself when I ask with dedication.
I feel inside myself what it feels like to really be at peace and I vow to hold onto the feeling of peace all during the coming day no matter what. Along with my vow I visualize myself staying on the peace line in all kinds of situations that might come to mind.
Each hour during the day I monitor my progress to be sure I am staying on the peace line. Again, what does it feel like to be at peace? If I notice I have fallen off this "peace-balance", I do whatever it takes to regain my peace and rededicate myself for the next hour.
At the end of the day before retiring I ask myself this one question:
"What if I could feel peace all the time ... every moment?"
Before falling to sleep I rejoice in my peace and say one last time for the day:
"No tightropes for me! Just the line of peace!"
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Course in Political Miracles
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