Last week, while walking through the streets of Melbourne, I was approached by a monk selling prayer beads. The friend I was with instantly brushed him aside, but I paused, took the beads and gave a small donation for a life time of peace and prosperity.
When I returned to my friend he gave me a disgruntled look, suggested that had been hoodwinked and apologised for not warning me that they might ask for money. But I gave him a disgruntled look in return told him he had no part to play in my decision to donate to a cause.
The beads I bought are nothing special, round wooden beads with a Chinese character printed on one, and as far as I can tell, are no different to any other beaded bracelet I own. However, there is something, now I think about it, that makes them unique.
And no, they are not impregnated with liquid luck or powdered peace.
The beads make me think.
For the first time today, I pulled these beads out of my dresser and decided to wear them. And in that decision I remembered the monk and his promise for peace. The man I had met, who is not nothing more than a memory of yellow robes and a bag full of bracelets followed me around all day. Whenever I paused to fidget with beads, or they knocked together, I remembered him. Somehow the peace he had promised me was coming, regardless of the amount that I paid for them, and it was my awareness brought me peace.
I have been doing a lot of reading on the importance of contentment and these peace beads were just another reminder to focus on the present. In my uneducated opinion, peace is loss of worry and stress, of forgetting the past and accepting the future. Of all the things I wish for in life, I wish for peace. It is too easy to wish for wealth or for love - but even with those two examples, I don't think anything in my life has caused me as much stress as the importance of working of money or the long awaited for 'other' that is bound to come into my life soon. I am a natural worrier, and although one day I very much wish to be contently financial and happy knowing someone loves me, I think I would use my wish to stop stressing about them quite so much and allow myself to live the life that I am making for myself.
So today, by simply having something strapped around my wrist, I had a constant reminder to focus on the Now of my life, to focus on the important things and accept the world around me. My friend was right in being sceptical, the monk was gathering money for his cause, and not everyone would have had a moment of enlightenment like mine. But I think that if my small donation brought a little funding into a small community that needed it, and a little peace in my life where I didn't realise I needed it, surely that is five dollars well spend.
Kathleen x `
