Beholding Peace_ Part 1 of 4 [Official Video]

Muwado Ad by BadidiTech Holdings

This video is the first poem in the series of four (4) poems written as extracts from the book “Behold Peace” written by Gilbert Simukanga. The search for inner peace.

UNDERSTANDING PEACE

My dear friend Doe, in order for us to know exactly how we have forgotten peace and how to remember it, we must first know exactly what peace is and what it isn’t, let’s see if we can understand it better.

So, what is peace?

Peace can simply be defined as a state of quiet, freedom from disturbance or a state of security. It can also be further described as the absence of despair, heaviness, anguish, suffering, emotional numbness, distress, and anxiety.

Peace can appear in three different constructs: inner peace, social peace and political peace. The kind of peace we’re addressing in this book is inner peace. A state of mental and spiritual calm.

Imagine a tree planted along a steadily flowing sea. Imagine a gentle breeze brushing through its leaves, rays of light warming its branches. It is quiet, secure, undisturbed. it is said to be at peace.

Imagine yourself sited by this tree Doe. Comfortably in the cool soil, leaning onto the tree. You feel the warmth of the rays from the sun on your skin. As you inhale and exhale slowly, you feel the cool sea breeze slowly coarse your respiratory track and spread through your body.

You close your eyes, you have no care, no worry, no load on your shoulders. There’s nothing else but this moment, this experience. As your ribcage slowly rises and lowers, you feel a calmness you have never experienced. You’re so still you lose consciousness of your physical surrounding, your consciousness is now within your soul, still, at rest. That is a perfect example of inner peace.

A SIGN OF FORGOTTEN PEACE

Nowadays I am finding it uncomfortable to use the term ‘Depression’. It is not because of its sensitive or cringe nature but because the term, sounds too clinical or too compact to understand.

It also sounds cliché and a lot of people use it without fully comprehending its nature. In this section, we’re going to unpack it and highlight the feelings involved in this dark matter that has become as common as water. Because this dark matter, is a sign of forgotten peace.

I must say, I am conflicted whenever it comes to sensitizing about these feelings of ‘Depression’. My conflict stems from the sadness of the growing number of young people who are taking their own lives. I am not small minded, I understand what pushes someone those extents, I have seen that world.

But the age of suicide victims is becoming smaller and smaller and it makes me wonder, is the dissemination of information contributing to these tragedies? Would the statistics be the same if the knowledge of depression and suicidal thoughts wasn’t so broadly dispersed? Are the young taking their lives because now they know it’s an option people take?

 Are we doing more harm than good discussing these tragedies? Or are we helping people navigate their complicated situations?

The younger the age, the more those questions trouble my mind Doe. You hear of a seventh grader taking her own life because she has failed her seventh-grade exam and you wonder what went wrong in the head of such a young mind.

I am not sure the kind of balance we can strike in such a fast-paced world we now live in because it seems that the medicine we offer also on some level sickens instead of curing. I will try to strike that balance in this book by dwelling less on these feelings of depression that takes our memory of inner peace and dwelling more on how one can get to remember peace and live in it regardless of circumstance.

So, about that unpacking of the word ‘depression’. The common and easily understood words and phrases we can use to unpack this tragic reality are despair, heaviness, anguish, self-loathing, the void, the fog, the weight, and the gray.

 All these words and phrases describe feelings of emptiness, dullness, exhaustion, oppression, loss of hope, low spirits, discouragement, long-lasting sadness, numbness, emotional fatigue, pain and distress. If you’ve ever experienced these over an extended time-frame Doe, you’ve been depressed before. But if you felt them only for a few hours or a few days, you simply had a few bad days and I wouldn’t want to create a non-existing monster in your life. Either way, you need to read this 

book because at the pace the world is moving, almost everyone is, has been, or will be depressed at some point in their life.

Regarding my introduction, you saw how dark and twisted these feelings are. You saw how bleak a defeated mind becomes. These feelings that the world have compacted into one word ‘depression’, are a thief of peace Doe. The more you’re in it, the dimmer your light becomes until you no longer shine, until you no longer desire to live. These feelings are a sign of forgotten peace.

Written by

Gilbert Simukanga

Author and Poet. Words for healing, reflection and spiritual growth; helping generations achieve purposeful living. All links here: https://linktr.ee/gilbertsimukanga

Follow

Did this story move you? Every gift goes directly to Gilbert Simukanga — writers on Muwado earn from reader appreciation, not algorithms. Even $1 makes a difference.

Gift Once Gift Monthly