Listen and I will tell you who are the people open to Joy whom God has blessed. Joyful are the poor, for nothing stands between them and the Realm of Love. Tilled with Joy are the sorrowful, for their souls are made strong through suffering. In Joyful surrender are the humble, for they receive the whole world as a gift. Joyful are they who long for holiness as one longs for food, for they shall enjoy Love's plenty. Joyful are the mercifully judged.Filled with Joy are they who establish peace for they share God's very nature. Joyful are the single-hearted for they know Love.
Today I was walking with some friends in Armstrong Redwoods Park and I was astonished at those trees. The more I looked at them, the more I came to appreciate them. It was completely still, unlike our tropical forests in India, where elephants trumpet, tigers roar, and there is a constant symphony of sound. Here everything was still, and I enjoyed the silence so much that I remembered these lines of John Keats. It is a perfect simile for the silence of the mind, when all personal conflicts are resolved, when all selfish desires come to rest. All of us are looking for this absolute peace, this inward, healing silence in the redwood forest of the mind. When we find it, we will become small forces for peace wherever we go.