The Times in Which We Live

Peace and the Protector

I awoke this morning from a dream in which I was gathering things together, trying to put everything into a safe place and make certain everything was orderly.

Then my birth father appeared wearing a police uniform.

He looked at me and simply said:

“Be at Peace. I protect you.”

When I awoke, I knew the message went beyond my father himself. He had appeared because, throughout my life, he had represented protection to me.

Until the day he passed, I always knew my father had my back.

No matter where I was or what was happening, I knew I could call him. He would guide me, help me, and, if necessary, come and get me.

That knowing gave me courage.

My father taught my mother, my sister, and me that we could accomplish whatever we truly set our minds to. He modeled strength without needing to live in fear. He was peaceful—or knew how to return quickly to peace—and from that place he could face whatever arose with wisdom, compassion, calmness, and strength.

There were even times when life seemed to place him nearby just when I was making a major transition.

When I moved to North Carolina, I unexpectedly discovered that he had temporarily been assigned within a few hours of me. Later, when I was called to California without first telling my parents, I discovered that he had also been sent to California.

Then, shortly after I became engaged to my husband, my father was offered work back in Michigan, near their hometown.

Something within me felt that his role as my protector was changing.

My husband would now walk beside me.

Within a few years, my father became ill and passed quickly.

And something within me changed.

I became the protector.

The strong one.

The one who watched.

The one who anticipated.

The one who tried to make certain everyone and everything would be all right.

I have carried that role for thirty-four years.

Until now.

Peace and the Protector

Recently I have been exploring the understanding that Peace is the Baseline.

I am beginning to see why my inner Protector became so important in this journey.

The Protector did not need to disappear.

It needed a new role.

Instead of constantly standing guard, anticipating everything that could go wrong, the Protector could become an ally—aware of the physical world, attentive to what required action, but no longer responsible for carrying everyone or preventing every possible difficulty.

I could allow Presence to lead.

And the Protector could simply walk beside me.

That understanding became especially meaningful over the last few days.

My husband and I had been noticing how much turmoil seems to surround us—natural disasters, accidents, fires, mechanical failures, personal challenges, and the ordinary disruptions that can suddenly turn a peaceful day upside down.

I noticed something similar while talking with several of my longtime clients. After our business was finished, we spoke, as friends often do, about what was happening in our lives.

Again and again I heard variations of the same story.

Things were breaking.

Things were being lost.

Unexpected problems were arising.

People and circumstances were pulling at their peace.

Yet my husband and I had also been experiencing challenges, and something was different.

We were learning to meet them without allowing each event to carry us into chaos.

Not because difficult things stopped happening.

But because we were beginning to understand that we could choose how we met them.

Then came my dream.

I saw myself gathering everything, trying once again to make everything safe.

And my father appeared.

“Be at Peace. I protect you.”

When I awoke, the meaning became clearer.

The voice of the protector I had associated with my father had become, for me, the voice of Presence within.

I no longer needed to spend my life trying to protect everyone.

I could be aware.

I could respond when action was needed.

I could care deeply.

But I could also release what was not mine to carry.

For me, this is what it means to walk with Presence.

You may call it God, Presence, Universal Mind, Divine Consciousness, Oneness, or another name that speaks to your heart. The terminology is not what matters.

What matters is what happens when we return to the stillness within ourselves.

In Peace, we can listen before reacting.

In Peace, we can recognize what requires our action and what requires our release.

In Peace, we can remain compassionate without assuming responsibility for everything around us.

And from Peace, we can choose our next step.

This reminded me again of the monks and their Walk for Peace.

They did not walk because they believed they could personally remove every conflict from the world.

They simply walked in Peace.

And as they walked, others felt it.

Perhaps that is one of the quiet gifts we offer one another.

Not fixing another person’s life.

Not carrying their burdens.

Not convincing them to believe as we believe.

Simply living from enough peace that another person remembers peace is possible.

Peace Is How We Meet the Moment

Walking in Peace does not mean challenges will never come.

It does not mean nothing painful, unexpected, or difficult will happen.

It means we develop a place within ourselves from which we can meet what comes.

We can pause.

We can breathe.

We can witness what is happening without immediately becoming what is happening.

Then we can respond with greater balance, wisdom, and clarity.

We learn to deal with what is before us now, rather than carrying every imagined possibility of tomorrow.

We remember:

This too shall pass.

And perhaps this is one of the greatest protections Peace offers us.

Not protection from living.

Protection from losing ourselves within everything that happens while we are living.

As I finished writing this message, words attributed to Archangel Michael arose within my contemplation:

“Above all else, guard your heart, for all that you are and do flows from it. Be at Peace and in the Stillness.”

Today I understand those words differently.

Guarding the heart does not mean closing it.

It means tending the inner place from which we meet the world.

Keeping it open.

Keeping it compassionate.

Returning it, again and again, to Peace.

We cannot control every event that may arise in the times in which we live.

We cannot carry every person.

We cannot know every future possibility.

But we can choose how we meet this moment.

And perhaps that is enough.

Be at Peace.

Walk in Peace.

Let Peace be the baseline from which you meet the times in which we live.