Walking For Peace

We pause our winter well-being series for a short reflection after meeting Buddhist monks walking 2,300 miles for peace. Their simple practice—say and write “Today will be my peaceful day”—reshapes how we focus, tell stories, and move through stormy days.

• who the peace walkers are and why their journey matters
• a daily peace mantra you can use and write
• focus as the one thing you fully control
• questions to assess whether your stories align with peace
• gentle practices for calm during winter storms
• recommitting to unhurried rhythms after a busy season

Stay tuned because we will continue our winter well being series. It will resume this week.

To learn more, go to mycreateharmony.com

Chapters

• 0:06 Welcome And Bonus Context
• 0:50 The Peace Walk Arrives Nearby
• 2:03 Message Of Daily Peace And Focus
• 4:15 Winter Storm Reflections And Practices
• 7:11 Closing Blessing And Series Update

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:06

Welcome to the Create Harmony Podcast. We are all about setting an intentional rhythm and savoring God's blessings. In this place, our pace is unhurried and the noise of the day begins to fade. It's a place where you can hear the soft rhythms of nature guiding your heart. So this is a bonus episode, and I am your host, Sally Burlington. Today is a slight change in my original plan, and you might be able to tell from my voice that I'm a little bit under the weather, so you'll have to excuse that. But I always record my episodes ahead of time, and I have one plan to release this week. It's all about staying cozy during the winter, and that will release as planned. But I just needed a little pop-up bonus episode to talk about something that happened yesterday. So yesterday, I went with some friends to see a group of Buddhist monks that are walking for peace. So if you're not familiar with this movement, let me explain it to you. There is a group of about 20 monks, and they started in October on October 26th in Fort Worth, Texas, and they are walking about 2,300 miles from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, DC. So I'm gonna say that again. They are walking 2,300 miles, and they've been coming all through the South, walking along and being peaceful. And as they travel, thousands of people have started to come out and be in their presence, kind of watch them as they pass and follow along on their journey. So I've been following them since they were in Georgia and watching them journey along. They have this little dog that travels with them. He was walking with them until somewhere in South Carolina, and then he had an injury, so he had to have surgery. But he is now traveling with them. He's no longer walking, but he's going with them. And they've been coming up part of this 2,300 miles. I think that right now they're at day 90 or 91, somewhere along in there, and they came through our town. So I wanted to be sure to go and see them. So I went and we waited. You know, it was very cold outside. And I need to also mention that we are in the state of North Carolina, and in North Carolina we're we were facing a winter storm that was coming through. So when when a winter storm is gonna come through here, we we all like to sort of hunker down. So, but we went out anyway, right before the storm got here, and waited while they walked past, and then we listened to their message and their greeting and their blessing. First of all, it was so moving. It was so moving to see them being so determined to accomplish this message. So the winter storm did come through, and after they this morning, when they got up and everything was icy, I mean there's several inches of sleet all over everything in this part of our state, and they got up and they were walking again. They are headed toward DC, did not stop. They said comfort was not the point. So here are some of my takeaways from this experience. One of the main things they talked about, one of the big messages that they carried. It's not a protest, it's not a protest walk, it's a peace walk. And what they talked about when they shared their little story was how to calm your brain and how to get yourself into a more peaceful state. They said that you need to get up every day and say to yourself, today will be my peaceful day. And then you need to take that one step further. You need to write that down. Today will be my peaceful day because writing it down helps you remember it. It'll train your brain to stay focused on that. So during our winter well-being series, we've talked a fair amount about focus, of the things that we focus on, and we've said focus is like the one thing that we completely control. No one else is in control of what you choose to focus on. And that's not true of most things in your life. Most things in your life other people have at least some level of control over. But what you focus on is totally up to you. And as these monks walk towards Washington, they are focused on peace. They've chosen to focus themselves solely on peace, and they're asking us to join them. They're inviting us in. Today will be my peaceful day. So as these months come through and I saw them and listened to their message, I'm asking myself, how can I carry the message of peace more fully into my world? And that's gotten me thinking. Thinking about the stories that I'm telling, stories I'm telling to myself, stories I'm telling to others. And it's got me thinking about the stories that I'm listening to. And I'm thinking about the questions that I'm asking. Are those things aligned with the life of peace? Am I focused on peaceful living in all areas? And if I'm not, what would it look like if I were? I shared recently that I'd just come through a season of hurry and hustle, and I'd had some projects that I was shepherding, and my peace practices have been a little bit abbreviated. But I've released some of those things that I really have been trying to focus more on. Things that bring me to a more peaceful and centered state of mind, less agitated state of mind. So the day after these months have passed through, we're all stuck at home now. Our winter storm did come. We have snow and ice all over everything. So we we're pretty much stuck at home, and it's the perfect time for me to consider how to be more peaceful. And I've been engaging in quite a few contemplative activities today. I've spent some extra time in my journal. I've been working on a jigsaw puzzle, which is one of my favorite cozy activities, and it allows me to take time to think and process things, to really contemplate the things in my life. And I'm taking this time to connect with you.

SPEAKER_00: 6:45

Today will be my peaceful day. Today will be my peaceful day. Today will be my peaceful day. May it be so.

SPEAKER_01: 7:05

So thanks for listening to this bonus episode. It's just quick and brief. My voice can only last that long. Stay tuned because we will continue our winter well being series. It will resume this week. And until next time, make it your peaceful day.