"..as we are"

How do you know when you're becoming more mature, more centered, more peaceful? It's when you begin to feel that way about your life and the world around you.

It's when things that used to rattle your cage or consume you with painful or disruptive emotions seem to be settling (but not necessarily fading) into a fluid, more graceful integration with who you are.

It's when you have a better sense of yourself relative to whatever troubled you deeply; not when the troubles disappear.

It's when you are more invested in your innate capacity to grow than you are fixated on simply getting through the trials that spurred the latest growth spurt.

Anais Nin (pictured above), a french writer and, if you explore her history, no doubt someone who has tasted extremes of life that many only dream about, once wrote this insightful line:

" We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."

I believe that's true. And if it is, then maybe a short cut on the bumpy, winding road to peace of mind lies in how we choose to see things.