Maybe its the sun saturating my face while I sit on my new deck. Maybe its the wind wrestling with the trees all around me. Maybe its the water endlessly flowing by in the form of the Portage River before me. Maybe its the birds continuously chatting with one another. Maybe its sipping my freshly brewed coffee from my favorite John Deere cup. Maybe its the fortunate intuition to pull Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements off my shelf on my way to the deck. Maybe its having an innocently random thought of John Lennon stroll through my mind that caused me to watch Imagine. Maybe its one of these aforementioned things or maybe its all of them together; either way, I cannot help but feel completely enveloped and saturated and oozing with peace!

Please, I beg of you, listen to Lennon’s words and let them permeate through you. Don’t just listen with the attitude, “Oh yeah, good song, I know all the words.” Take some time to breath and prepare yourself for what he is saying to us. Peace is possible. Peace is available. Peace is a choice that is ours for the taking. All we have to do is accept it. Peace is already ours within us as long as we go within and get it. You will not find true peace anywhere except for looking deep within yourself.

The book I mentioned before, The Four Agreements, simply MUST be read if you haven’t yet. If you have read it, I urge you to reread it this week. Its a small book, 139 pages or so. Could be read in one sitting if you really wanted to. I like to buy books and underline sections I feel resonate with me so I can go back and reread what moved me. The first time I read this book, I think I underlined about 95% of the whole book so the second time I read it I started to put big asterisks along the side of the pages. After all the asterisks were there I would write little comments along the margins to call my attention to certain paragraphs. Needless to say, this book is cluttered with different colored pen marks, scribbles, and half-legible words. I would recommend reading through it the first time and just letting the message soak in. Then I would go back and reread it and start to apply the way of living he is describing in this short, powerful message. Its ideas are so simple yet so enormously profound! The first time I read it I felt like the old V-8 commercial where you slap your forehead with newfound information: “I shoulda had a V-8.”

My initial intent was to share some quotes from the book in order to make this point or that point but my gut tells me to simply, peacefully suggest to you the importance of Ruiz’s message. His book and Lennon’s song is more than enough food for thought for one beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Imagine Peace!

Not the over-commercialized-change-your-name-because-you-want-to-sound-cool kind of peace. I mean actual peace.

Peace within yourself.

Peace with your family.

Peace at your work.

Peace within your nation.

Peace on this planet.

Imagine!

Wishing You Much Peace!

~Travis

(Will you share this message? My desire is to be Freshly Pressed by WordPress in order to share this message with everyone. Attach it to an email and send it on. Relink it to your Facebook page. Forward it on Twitter. Let’s get the message out that Peace is possible and that Lennon’s words are still alive today! Thank you!)