🎙️

Fruit of the Spirit: Peace

Season
Season 1
Episode Number
24
Release Date
April 1, 2019
Tags
Fruit of the SpiritPeaceCurrent Events
Guest
Sarah

Introduction (00:01:03)

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Hey guys. Welcome back to the PSALMS to God podcast. So, today we're back to the Fruit of the Spirit and we're talking about peace. So I asked my friend, Sarah, to come on and talk to me. We met in college, and we're in the same sorority—she's my sorority sister. I feel like Sarah's probably been around me for like the craziest part of my life, and we've never actually really talked about peace, so I thought it would be a great conversation. So hey Sarah!

👩🏽 SARAH: Hi. So yeah, when you asked what peace was, I was like I have no idea.

👩🏾‍🦱👩🏽 REE + SARAH: 😂

What is Peace? (00:01:45)

👩🏽 SARAH: Especially when it feels like in my life right now I have no idea what peace is. But then when I sat down and like really thought about it, I thought of peace as more of a feeling and a mental state of mind. You know what I mean?

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah.[1] I realized like when I got getting ready to do this episode, and I was like okay the next episode is going to be on peace. I realized like I don't think I've ever had a conversation with anybody about peace. I don't think I've ever just sat down and been like "what is peace?"

👩🏽 SARAH: Yeah. So, I don't know; I guess I just associate it with a feeling. Because everything can be wrong or going wrong in your life, whether it's like financially, or if you're feeling overwhelmed at school, or if you're in like a terrible relationship, but a moment can make you feel at peace—whether it's like a hug or like a great conversation or like being with family or going on a vacation. I don't know. Those are things I associate with peace because they just makes me feel like I have some like calmness and I'm relaxed. and I'm maybe not thinking of those things that stress me out.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah I definitely think getting rid of stressors. Hugs—I love hugs. I don't know, there's something about a hug from like a friend or like a family member or somebody that you just know that like cares about you can like suddenly make things go away. All of a sudden it doesn't matter that you just like flunked a test or that you made a fool of yourself in your front of your boss, or whatever. It's just like it's OK.

👩🏽 SARAH: Right. I agree. It's like 10 seconds—well, it depends on the person how long the hug is 'cause like some people you only want a half hug and other people you want the full hug 😂—but I'll say it's like 10 seconds of like a moment where you don't have to think about what's going wrong.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yes. Like a refocusing of your mind.

👩🏽 SARAH: Right.

Choosing Peace (00:04:01)

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah, I think it's been interesting because so far I've done love, I've done joy, and even coming into peace it seems like it's a conscious choice—like it's a feeling. Like all of these things are like feeling versus choice questions, but the more I dug into peace, it's kind of like re-situating your mind so that you're not focusing on like the negative, but like, you said, forgetting about whatever's happening. And that's kind of like a choice that you have to make to seek peace, right?[2]

👩🏽 SARAH:

Right. Then I realized like peace and it's correlation with mental health.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yes!

👩🏽 SARAH: And that peace, even though we want it to just kind of like fall out of the sky, it takes a lot more work than you think.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Definitely. I...I don't know. Like, there are times when, you know, people like "Oh, you just should like make that choice, and you should just decide to think positive, positively, or forget about it." And you know I'm awkward. You know I'm super awkward and I do things all the time and even I'm like "Shiree, don't think about it," and other people are probably not thinking about it, it just like replays over and over in my head. And it could just be like little things, like... I don't know like I walked into a wall in front of people.

👩🏽 SARAH: 😂[3]

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: And I'm like so bothered because I'm like "oh my gosh, these people think I'm an idiot!" And like I do things like that at work all the time, and I'm just like super wound up about like how the people around me are viewing whatever it is I've done. But I feel like it's my responsibility to like consciously stop thinking of it. But it's so hard!

👩🏽 SARAH: Right, and what's crazy is like those little things like maybe in the moment, someone would be like "Oh my gosh, really?" and like maybe laugh a little bit. But like five seconds after that, they forgot about it. We beat ourselves up about things—like how we are portrayed by others—when like half the time, they're thinking about how they're being portrayed by others, you know like they're not even worried about whatever we did, said, or even thinking about it. They're thinking about what stresses them out.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Exactly! And it's...I don't know. It's so bizarre. Even as I get older and realize that like I still do it, I have to remind myself like they're not even paying you any attention.

👩🏽 SARAH: Right.

Dictionary Definitions (00:06:55)

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: I don't know. It was interesting. So I looked up the word "peace" and I started digging into like what it means. And I looked up the word in different languages and things like that. And I found out like some pretty cool things. So first I looked at the regular definition of "peace" in the dictionary,[4] and it talks about peace in the sense of like the absence of conflict, and I think once I read it, I was like "Oh yeah." Like...like a peace treaty or something; like that where we're not at war so there's peace, so to speak.

👩🏽 SARAH: Right.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: And like that kind of went down the path of like things about safety and security; which, I mean, in our society I feel like even though we may not be at war per sé, it's still hard to kind of feel peace, because we have so much going on. Like they just had the shooting in New Zealand.[5] Like it's hard to feel at peace when you know crazy people are out here doing heinous things. You know, and we have all of the things with like police brutality, and these things of course, take away from our sense of peace from a sense of like safety.

👩🏽 SARAH: Yeah.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: But as I kept digging, I looked up the Hebrew and the Greek words that are used like Biblically to mean peace. The Greek word—I don't know how to pronounce this so I'm probably butchering it, but it looks like something like "εἰρήνη" or something like that. And it seems to match like the English version of peace.[6] But when I got to the Hebrew version, there are like a couple of different versions of the word, but it's basically "shalom"[7][8][9][10] and on top of like what we already kind of discussed and what we generally think of peace meaning, it also means like completeness.

👩🏽 SARAH: Yeah.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: And that kind of blew my mind, because I never really thought of peace meeting like completeness. But then as I thought about it, I was like "oh yeah every time I'm not at peace with a situation or with a person, it's because there's something that's unresolved, or there's something that's lacking, or I want something and it's not there."

👩🏽 SARAH: Right. And I've witnessed people of Jewish faith like use that word, and say it to one another, as like a... I don't know. Like when they're leaving someone or when they're greeting someone. They say "shalom" and like I never thought that it was associated with peace, but as you said a sense of wholeness and that's like so beautiful. Like I don't know! I don't think I've ever said anything that's that deep to someone, and you know, it could be helpful in a way; if you really think to what it means.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Right. Yeah they do, and I think they say something like... I think, well this is the English version, I think they say "peace be with you."[11] I think it's something like that, when they like greet people. And yeah that is really beautiful. Like we should start saying that in English.

👩🏾‍🦱👩🏽 REE + SARAH: 😂

👩🏽 SARAH: All the time. Ok, that's a little much but we can say "peace be with you" on the—I know like in Catholicism, in the middle of church, the priest always says, "Peace be with you," and you always say back "And always with you." So there's like a Christian link to that as well. So I guess we do that as Christians. We're not giving ourselves enough credit, here.

When Were You Most At Peace? (00:10:47)

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: 😂. But yeah, it's like, I think it's really profound. And when I was listening to this video on like what this word means and they were talking about this like completeness,[12] I don't know. It just kind of made me re-evaluate my life, and try to like go back and think about when I felt like the most at peace. And I was shocked how much it mirrors like the idea of completeness, because I feel like—believe it or not—I feel like I was at the most peace when I was at college.

👩🏽 SARAH: I guess I can agree with that. But I think it's just you're surrounded by like so much like love and friendship, like constantly, and like so much support.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah, I felt like... In college, I felt like on the one hand like I was never really afraid to fail per sé—because I mean, obviously, I was afraid to like flunk out of school 'cause my parents would have killed me—but I felt like, I don't know, you feel like nothing bad is going to happen to you. And like I always... Like you guys were always there. I mean we all live in the same like area. There's always somebody, like when we would go to the dining hall, like there's always somebody to sit with. Like I was never really anxious about having people around me to like be comforting or anything. And even when I fail, like if I failed a test, chances are somebody else has failed a test that can be like I failed that test too. And so, it's just like everything kind of fits in. You feel like whole. And it wasn't until like maybe near the end of my senior year, where you start trying to figure out what you're going to do with your life, and you're just kind of like blindly walking, that suddenly I felt like peace just kind of went out the window.

👩🏽 SARAH: Yeah. I feel like peace went out the window when you have to take that stuff like into adulthood. With that comes more responsibility, and you find yourself more busy, or you have to relocate and those friends that were like so close like just a walkaway are now gone. And I don't know. I guess just like more responsibility is what makes you feel like your peace is gone.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah. I definitely... Like I'm always scared I'm going to forget to pay a bill or something and they're going to—

👩🏽 SARAH: 😂They're going to turn your lights off?

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah! No, I actually almost had this happen. So it took me awhile to figure out how to get my utility bill to be auto-drafted, and it’s just due at some like random date in the middle of the month. It's not due on the first or anything that's memorable. And so over the summer like I went home for a while, and I didn't check the mail before I left, so I was gone for like 2 weeks. I guess the bill came at that point, and I like forgot to pay it, and so I was like maybe like 2 weeks late paying my utility bill. And I got like the notice that if I didn't pay it by like a certain date they were going to cut my water off, and I was just like "oh my gosh! I'm failing. I'm so failing at this."

👩🏾‍🦱👩🏽 REE + SARAH: 😂

👩🏽 SARAH: That is not a failure at all. Like, and then I'm like I don't even have that much responsibility. Like there are some people our age that have children and whole families. I can't even manage my life like the way it is and don't have any of that.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: No. I have so much more of a respect for my parents now that I'm like, I don't know pseudo an adult. When I think about like when I was a kid... And like I remember when we were in school like my parents would always be like "Call me before you go somewhere. Call me when you get back." And you know, like if we went out somewhere, and we stayed out until like 2 or 3 in the morning,[13] you don't really want to call them at 3 in the morning. You're like "It's fine. I'll just call them whenever I get there," and they would be like so mad at me, because they didn't have peace of mind I was back in my dorm safe. And I did not get that in school. I was like just it cool, it's college, like I'm fine. But now that I'm an adult, I'm just like oh my goodness there so many crazy things happening in the world! How do people with kids deal with like just sending their kids to school?

👩🏽 SARAH: Right, even just sending them to school is like... And remembering like themselves, and like taking time for themselves whether they are like a mom or a dad. Like how important is the feeling of peace to like be maintained when you remember yourself? But you're a functioning human, too. Yes it's important for your kids to get everything they need, but how do you remember to take time out to relax your mind and do things that you like to do even. I don't know how they do it.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: I don't either. I cannot imagine. Like I get yeah... Keeping peace for like multiple people. Like if you have multiple kids, keeping the peace between the kids. Yeah that's mind-blowing.

Sacrificing and Giving Peace (00:16:39)

👩🏽 SARAH: So I was reflecting on peace in the aspect, too, of trying to take peace away from yourself and give it to others. A lot of times I feel like we sacrifice our own peace so that others can have peace.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah I feel like I did that a lot more when I was younger.

👩🏽 SARAH: Really?

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah. I...OK so I would say I went through this phase where I wanted to avoid conflict, because I had a really short temper in like middle school and high school, and then I have mellowed out by the time I got to college. At that point I think because I was trying not to have such a short temper, like I wanted other people to be OK. So if I thought that I said something that offended them, or whatever, I was like really quick to like apologize and try to like soothe it out and like make sure they were okay. I feel like that phase went on for while, and then I don't know. Somebody just made me mad, and I was like "You know what? No. You just gon' have to be mad!" 😂 And then... And I think I king of snapped me out of it a little bit, but sometimes I still find myself, you know, not saying necessarily what I want to say because I'm afraid that it's going to like rock the boat with the other person.

👩🏽 SARAH: Yeah. It's still important to say what you feel, but I understand that like sometimes you have to have a filter.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah. Filters are important, and not just on Instagram.

👩🏾‍🦱👩🏽 REE + SARAH: 😂

👩🏽 SARAH: Not just on your selfies.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah. 😂

👩🏽 SARAH: But sometimes I feel like we may filter ourselves too much. Sometimes I don't think I stand up for myself the way I should, and maybe I would be more at peace if I could really say how I felt in a moment. You know?

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah. Yeah, I think... Have you ever had like the conversation replays? Where, like just that. Where it's like in the moment you didn't say something, but then you replay that conversation over and over about what you should have said or what you wish you had said.

👩🏽 SARAH: Yup. All the time.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: I feel like that's where a lot of my like grudges come in. And most of the time it's with people that I felt like I didn't have a right to say anything with. So like professors in school or like when I was a kid like adults that you're supposed to respect your elders and things like that, so would hold my tongue. And then like even now, that I should have told them this, this, and this. Yeah, I think you're on to something there.

👩🏽 SARAH: Or sometimes your emotions are just so heated in the moment. You're either like so sad or so angry that like you're not thinking with a level head, but when you step out of it, you have that level-head, and you can really like decipher how you really felt about the situation

When Sarah Felt Most At Peace (00:19:58)

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Oh yeah. Yeah. Hindsight is 20/20. Every time. I think... I said when I felt the most at peace. Did you? I know you said you could see why I said college, was that your answer, too or did you have a different answer?

👩🏽 SARAH: I never really thought that I felt the most at peace at college. I don't know. You mean like a moment in time?

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah. I mean it could be just like a second.

👩🏽 SARAH: Right. Like I just feel like I have a whole bunch of little moments. Like I don't feel like there's one long time, were I would say, unless I have the most little moments during a little time. I don't know. But, I feel like I have little moments where I reflect and I'm just like able to let things go.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: That's good though. I feel like... I feel like small moments here and there is probably better than one like extended moment and then you never have it again. And I mean, I still have moments of peace now; I just feel like in college it was probably like an overall feeling of peace with you know like random bouts of anxiety, whereas now it's more like more anxiety with smaller portions of peace.

👩🏽 SARAH: Yeah because now we have more weight. Like more weight on our shoulders, like more things to think about or we find those problems to be more important now. They're different. Whereas before, it was like... I don't know, what did we worry about in college? You of course worry about your grades, but sometimes I don't even think I put that as a priority, 'cause like I'm terrible. 😂 So maybe I was worried about boys and ugh, I don't know.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah I mean I feel like... I feel like that one doesn't really go away until you're like married.

👩🏽 SARAH: 😂

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Still sometimes I'm just like, "Oh. Yeah, I'm still not at peace because of a guy or something."

👩🏽 SARAH: 😂 I don't think men bring peace at all. That's terrible.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: 😂 I'm sure that if Devin was with us, he would say that women don't bring peace, either.[14]

👩🏽 SARAH: Yes. If Devin were here—and hopefully he will listen—he would be very offended by our comments.

Support Brings Peace in Unexpected Times (00:22:41)

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: 😂 I mean in that same vein, I feel like friendship can bring peace. 'Cause I definitely... Like with you guys, like I'll text you guys and be like "Yo, I'm freaking out." And like I feel like when I don't have that moment of clarity, like other people can have it. Like you guys will text me back and be like "That stupid. It's fine. Like stop worrying about that."

👩🏽 SARAH: Right. Yup. And even when it's not stupid, or it is serious, just having someone there to listen and say everything's going to be OK. Things might suck right now, but everything always works out. Sometimes that's just what you need to hear, because you're just all up and upset.

👩🏽 REE: Yeah I think that support is crucial. Having someone to lean on, knowing that somebody cares—I think even more so than knowing that it's going to be OK. Like for instance, like when somebody dies. I mean people say "Oh, it's going to be okay," and you know that the person is not coming back—like this is an irreversible like change in your life, but knowing that there are other people that care about you is what like soothes that pain or that issue. I feel like that's what's the most peaceful. But if we were like trying to cultivate peace, like obviously from a... I don't know, From a literal standpoint, where peace is about like safety and things like that, you know we try not to put ourselves in harm's way. And we try not to put ourselves in situations that are specifically unsafe, or you know that you're not just going to run into an unsafe environment or something like that if you can help it. But even if you are, because there are lots of people who can't help it, you know. People who live in, you know, certain neighborhoods maybe there's like a lot of gang violence or something. Like you can't necessarily just turn that on or off. How would you go about seeking peace? Like those little moments of peace, just like for yourself in like stressful environments.

👩🏽 SARAH: Peace is so relative to the person and the place. Like for someone that's for say in the military, a terrible environment, how do they find peace? And I'm not really sure, because I've never been in that situation. But we've stressed so much the value of like relationships, and people and family. And so I think what would be the most important to them, or anyone that's in a stressful environment, would be just that. You know what I mean—friends, family, and ways to seek out them and speak with them and comfort them, and you know.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Definitely. I, so actually when I was in grad school, I had like serious anxiety for a while. I went through like I don't know I went through this series of months that was just horrible. So first I got bit by a spider, which I'm allergic to spiders, and I was allergic to the medicine they gave me for the spider bite.[15] I like kept throwing up, and so I couldn't eat for like a week. And then as soon as I got over all of that, I found out that I had like a month to write this like massive paper and try to move on to the next phase in my program. And so, I didn't sleep for the entire month. Ok, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but what I really mean is like I was going to sleep at like 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, and then getting back up at like 7. And when I got through with that I was just like super wound up. I was... Like my heart rate was excessive and when I went to the doctor for something else they were like you have like anxiety. And so they referred me to talk to like the campus mental health person, because FYI for those of you are in school, your school probably has some sort of counseling program for mental health, and you probably get free visits at least like a couple of free visits a year. And that's how it is. At least that's how it is at Clemson. And so I went and talked to them, and they had me go through these classes on anxiety and like creating peace in a moment of anxiety. I'm not really certain this would work on like a battlefield, 'cause like I said I've never been on a battlefield. But like, you know, they would have you like picture yourself somewhere that gives you comfort. So like for instance, like with the military, your family may not be within arm's reach. Like you can't necessarily get a hug from your family, and depending on the situation and how intense the fighting is, you may not be able to call them at that exact moment. And so you know, they were basically suggesting you know that you would like picture being with them, if that's where your peace comes from or like you could picture yourself on the beach. And then you focus in on what the beach would sound like, what the smell of the air smells like, and things like that. And just kind of like redirecting your senses to like focus in on something else that takes your mind off of whatever's giving you that anxiety. It actually worked pretty well. Like, you know, when I would get you super stressed out about school, I think that was really helpful. As I got out of school, you know, I kind of stopped. I mean sometimes I still imagine myself other places, but I also would try like praying. And you know sometimes that can help, because even though you don't necessarily have your friend right there or your family member right there, you have like God at arms length. Which is a definite way of you know having that connection to somebody when you need it, and I guess that's on like a more immediate situation.[16] But I also tried to think of things that could help with peace like overall. You know, like some people like say like flowers. So like putting flowers at your desk at work to look at so that you don't get stressed out at work. Or I don't know. Like I'm one of those people, I have to add color to everything. Like if there's no color, I would just feel like I'm in a hospital!

👩🏽 SARAH: Sheesh! My job!

👩🏾‍🦱👩🏽 REE + SARAH: 😂

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Not that there's anything wrong with working at a hospital. I just don't want to be like a patient in the hospital—I want to be healthy. I don't know

Peace on the Job (00:30:01)

👩🏽 SARAH: We talked about the difference of our jobs today. I was like, "My job is never... I never feel at peace at my job." And you were like "Sometimes I feel at peace at my job." And I'm like, "Aw that's so different." 😂

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah, I mean, I feel like that's because your job is... I can't imagine doing what you do, just off the bat. Like I feel like I would be so nervous. But it's also like when I mess up on my job, it's just... It's almost like job security, because I'm supposed to develop code but I'm also supposed to fix code. So if I develop code that's broken, then I just have to fix the code that I broke—that sounds so bad; I don't do that.[17] But it's not really that big of a deal if I mess up at work, which I think is why I typically have a lower stress level at the job that I have now. And then again, it's the people. The people I work with are really cool. They're pretty helpful. They're pretty laid-back which aids in that environment. But I feel like, you know, when you're at the hospital and you're trying to treat patients it's like there's a higher level of like severity to it and of like seriousness. And of course, I'm pretty sure you get crazy patients.

👩🏽 SARAH: Yeah. When—well, I'm a nurse by the way; I guess we never said that, we just assumed everyone knew what I did.[18] But let's step back know. You said like the people you are around. That like means so much. The support at the workplace to remind you to like remember yourself and remember your peace, even though we don't say that. But remind you to like go have a snack, like take a walk, like take a breather. Or offer their help, and then like actually help you—makes you have like a moment of peace, you know what I mean. And helps you to make it through the shift, so that you're at peace when it's over and are clocking out. 😂

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah... Yeah. That's definitely part of. OK, so when I first started working at my job, they gave me this device to work on, and I type this command in the wrong window. So I had like multiple windows up on my computer, and one of the windows went to the device and one of the windows went to like my computer. And I basically erased everything on the device, like the entire file system of the device by accident.[19] And I felt like such an idiot, and I had only been working there for a couple of days, so I didn't know how to like fix it or like if I had irrevocably like broken the device. And I had to go up to like my boss and say like, "I broke this, how do I fix it? Is it broken for good? What do I do?" I was so embarrassed, 'cause it just seems like such like a boneheaded thing to do. But when I told my boss, he just laughed and he was like, "I've done that before." And it just made it so much more peaceful, because the moment that all that tension was broken, it was like "Oh OK, it's not a big deal!" and that's really important too.

👩🏽 SARAH: Yeah. I feel like our common denominator is people, in like what helps us keep like our equilibrium and like our peaceful state of Mind, is other people. 

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah, in some senses. And that being said, I think that kind of gives us a responsibility to help other people keep their peace. Like if I'm helping you keep your peace, and you're helping me keep my peace, then we should both have peace.

👩🏽 SARAH: I don't think we always think about that, 'cause we're so wrapped up in our own lives and our own things. But that kind of touches on what I said earlier like taking away maybe your temporary moment to give to someone else, in order to make them feel well, and help them get to where they want to be.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah definitely. 'Cause I feel like the whole breakdown of peace is when like you said when we forget to do that, because it's when I choose to ignore your need for peace, and do something crazy. And so, now I'm not at peace, you're not at peace, and we're both like doing crazy things. Whereas if we both step back and I say, "look OK, what can I do to help her be at peace?" and if you're saying the same thing, then we can come to like peaceful agreement or something. The world would be so much better if we could handle that.

Peace and Finances (00:36:06)

👩🏽 SARAH: Right. I wish the student loan companies would say, "What can I do her feel at peace?"

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Oh my goodness! I could answer that question: they could forget that I owe them anything.

👩🏾‍🦱👩🏽 REE + SARAH: 😂

👩🏽 SARAH: And then I would have so much peace!

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah oh goodness!

👩🏽 SARAH: But no. Taking ownership of that, and deciding to be more financially conscious, and managing my money well, and taking steps to relieve my debt, that would make me feel at peace.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah, I'm working on that. Imma get it. I'm going to get it paid, so I can have peace of financial mind. But I think that's also a thing. You know, people have the saying like, "money can't buy happiness," and I totally agree with that, but I do think that having like financial stability adds to your peace. Because it's one less thing you have to worry about.

👩🏽 SARAH: And some things that we enjoy cost money. I mean let's be real, like you want to travel to beautiful places, and that wonderful you think of when you're anxious, it cost money.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah. Even just like, I don't know. Like having a job that pays well, for instance, like I have friends that work... So the place that I work, I work as a salaried employee, but some people are like hourly employees. So you have to put in so many hours, and that mandates your paycheck. And the thing about it is, because I'm salaried I get so many days that I get to take off, where I just get paid. So like I can take off on Friday, as a mental health day. Like if something happens, you know, if I'm just not feeling up to it. If I just need a day to myself, and I say, I do want to go to the beach. I can take that day off and my check doesn't get smaller, but in certain fields you don't have that liberty. Or like I know there's a lady at my church that works 4 jobs—I don't know how she does it, but she works 4 jobs to pay like rent and keep food on her table and all of these things. And I'm like you can't just, you can't just take a break for you. In that sense, I think money can definitely help with your peace, and I really wish that there were better options for people who don't have that financial liberty, or who have those types of jobs. Because, I mean I get the whole like "Oh you get paid for when you're here, etc. etc.," but I really do think the U.S. should do something about like paying for some sort of mental health days. 'Cause I think that's why people crack up. Sometimes you just need a day to yourself to breathe. 

👩🏽 SARAH: Yeah, and it's like trying not to overextend yourself and putting yourself in a situation where you're able to take care of yourself and your family. And I agree that stability is very freeing and peaceful if everything is going the way you want it to go.

Wrap Up(00:39:49)

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah. Do you have any other thoughts on peace before we go?

👩🏽 SARAH: I feel like this conversation was very eye-opening. You know, to help me make steps like in my own life to ensure that I have more sense of peace more often.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Definitely. And I think, just talking about peace with someone. Like I said in the beginning, I've never talked about peace with anyone. Like we have conversations about love; we talk about like happiness, and being sad, and you know whatever, but I feel like we should talk about peace more often, too.

👩🏽 SARAH: Yeah. And really reach out to people you love and friends and family more often to make sure that they're doing that for themselves, 'cause it's so important.

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you for hanging out with me, and joining me on the podcast. I appreciate it

👩🏽 SARAH: Thank you so much for asking me!

👩🏾‍🦱 REE: For my listeners out there, thank you so much for tuning in. I hope that this was beneficial to you, and that you will go forth cultivating peace in your life, is very important I don't know how we can keep sane in this world without trying to get some semblance of peace and help other people have peace as well. So in the meantime, I want you guys to check out the website. Subscribe, like, all of those things! You can find a transcript for this particular episode at www.psmalstogod.com/peace, and I will see you guys in the next episode. Thanks!

References and Footnotes

  1. If you listen close you can hear Bubbles purring through the beginning of the segment. She was sitting beside the computer eavesdropping on the conversation. I like to think she recognized Sarah's voice, but most likely she was just being noisy.
  2. Psalm 34:14
  3. She's laughing because I actually did this in college. We were at the movie theatre and I walked into a brick column.
  4. "Peace". Merriam-Webster; visited March 2019
  5. Christchurch Mosque Shooting”. Wikipedia; visited August 2022
  6. "1515. eiréné". Bible Hub; visited March 2019
  7. "7965. shalom". Bible Hub; visited March 2019
  8. "8003. shalem". Bible Hub; visited March 2019
  9. "8002. shelem". Bible Hub; visited March 2019
  10. "7999b. shalam". Bible Hub; visited March 2019
  11. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. "Hebrew: Greetings & Congratulations". Jewish Virtual Library; visited April 2018
  12. The Bible Project. "Word Study: Shalom - "Peace"". YouTube. November 30, 2017
  13. The old people are right, nothing good happens after dark.
  14. Devin was the guest in "Fruit of the Spirit: Love." Sarah is the other member of the group chat I randomly mentioned in that episode.
  15. I've had two non-poisonous spiders bite me, and both times I had to go to a doctor. -_-
  16. I meant that whole conversation was about needing peace in an immediate situation, not that God was for an immediate situation. God is for all situations!
  17. This is actually a running joke at the job. None of us intentionally put bugs in code, we just make this joke to relieve the embarrassment when our code doesn't work the way thought it would.
  18. I momentarily forgot we were recording a podcast.
  19. For my listeners who are tech savvy: "sudo rm -rf *" in the root directory
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PSALMS to God is a blog, podcast, and YouTube channel that discusses many topics and issues, always keeping YHWH as the anchor. Hosea 4:6 says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge”—here, the aim is to always ask questions and study to find the answers. You can keep up with new content by signing up for the weekly newsletter.

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