Finding Peace in an Uncertain World by Eleri Grace

Without dwelling on recent national events, I think it's fair to say that many of us may feel a bit off-balance this month. As we begin to look ahead to 2025, we may feel unsettled or uneasy. Change, whether it's the change you hoped for or not, is destabilizing for all of us on some level. 

As I so often am -- bear with me y'all -- I am reminded of the WWII years. Plenty of historical parallels have been drawn between the global forces at work in the 1930s and current times, and that's not what I wanted to focus on here. I've been thinking more about a perspective my novels don't focus on much -- the home front. For as all-consuming and devastating as the news itself was for Americans tuning into the radio or reading in the newspapers, most people continued on with their day-to-day lives and found there was joy and even peace to be found.

Despite rationing and restrictions on sales of certain goods, many Americans had more money in their pockets since before the Depression. And they spent it and how -- at the movies, in diners and restaurants, and in the shops. Sure, films, music, books, comics, radio programming and other pop culture content had a heavily patriotic and pro-American slant, but it boosted spirits all the same. 

Maybe some of these photos of daily life in the 1940s will lift your mood, make you smile, and remind you that there's light and fun and joy to be found even when times seem particularly challenging or dispiriting. 

You can learn more about me and my writing on my website or through my Amazon page!  

Peace, Gratitude and Calm

• "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one.” ― John Lennon

Musician  John Lennon was always hopeful for a world where Peace was the norm. He and his wife Yoko protested for peace in a peaceful manner. 

The world is not at peace now. So much conflict, death and anger envelopes our world.

As members of this world we can only start with ourselves. We can be grateful for what we have, and who we have in our lives. We members of planet Earth should seek out peace, gratitude and clam. 

If  you are at peace with yourself you are a step ahead of the game. You can not force peace on another person, but you can show by example what a peaceful nature looks like. Perhaps it will rub off on negative people.

We may not be happy about certain things in our world/society, but the counter to that is to find what you are grateful for. When you look to the sun the darkness falls behind.

There is always good in everyday. Focus on the good in your own life. Be grateful for family, community, home etc. Keep a gratitude book and jot down a few things each day you are grateful for. This helps me feel better. I am grateful for so many things.

If you are not in a calm place try a few of these tactics.

1) deep breathing

2) If you have an aquarium spend five minutes watching the fish swim.

3) Pets-take your dog for a walk. spend some time petting the dog or cat.

4) 5 mins of aerobic exercise-walking even around your house, but better outside.

5) Help a neighbor or friend this will make you feel pleasure and connection.

6) Meditate or yoga

Having a Calm mind will bring peace to your life and happiness will find you. 

I love this quote on happiness. I had to read it twice to get the meaning. 

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” —Oscar Wilde

What do you do to restore calmness and peace to your life in troubled times?

(All pictures taken by Diana McCollum)

LOVE AND LAUGHTER . . . AND PEACE EVER AFTER by Eleri Grace

 

Slit Trench, Northern Burma, 1944

The heroines of my novels, the Red Cross Girls, always held out hope for an end to the war and the elusive dream from the Vera Lynn song -- "there'll be love and laughter . . .  and peace ever after." Through their overseas service, they had seen so much death and pain and loss that they fervently wanted the war to end. The Red Cross Girls were often stationed as close to the front lines as the combat nurses, and even the "safe" posts were often on air bases where the women witnessed casualties virtually every day. It was not uncommon for a woman to dance with a pilot or crewman one night and learn the next day that he had been killed on a mission or in an accident the following morning. Death -- and the harsh realities of war --- hovered over every aspect of their service. It was emotionally draining and stressful work, thus prompting the Red Cross to transfer the women frequently (with the often futile hope that short duration assignments would minimize their emotional attachments). 

Emily Harper Rea, ARC, April 1945

The women worried about their own loved ones (husbands, sweethearts, and brothers), and they cared deeply for the men they served through the Red Cross recreation clubs and Clubmobiles -- the "boys" to use their parlance of the time. But they too were not immune from the dangers and vagaries of war -- some 53 ARC personnel (mostly women) lost their lives in WW2 service. These deaths most often occurred as a result of plane crashes (these independent and spirited women often flouted the ARC's prohibition against the common practice of "hitching a ride" with a friendly pilot), but at least one woman died as a direct result of enemy action. 

France, Memorial Day 1945

All dreamed of peace and an end to the war -- long-awaited reunions with a husband or sweetheart or marriage to a wartime suitor or just a return home to American food, family, and traditions. But at the same time, the Red Cross Girls recognized that they too were as changed by their wartime service as the soldiers. An unnamed Red Cross Girl correspondent wrote back home: "None of us [will ever be quite the same again] -- GI or Red Cross." She noted in the same letter that she and her friends were "terribly calloused and never calloused enough," that they "were disciplined and worn down smooth, so that you smile when you're dying." They worried about how they would readjust to civilian life and how they would cope with the trauma they had seen and experienced during the war years. The concept of PTSD was decades away, and while folks back home might be reasonably sympathetic to a man returning home with a bit of "combat fatigue," they likely couldn't grasp the emotional scars and residual stress the Red Cross Girls brought home.

Camouflaging Clubmobile, Normandy 1944

These intrepid and daring women were also uncertain if a slower-paced existence in peace time America would suit them -- they had spent years being "on" all the time time, and most importantly, having far more freedom and discretion than they could expect when they returned home. Indeed, the women wondered how they would cope with returning home to an America where they were expected to now settle down into domesticity. The unnamed correspondent had noted in her letter that while most of the soldiers thought them brave, others believed that the Red Cross Girls belonged "back home where a woman's place used to be . . . about 200 years ago." I find that quote so very intriguing -- this woman, writing in 1944, believed that the idealized American version of housewife and stay-at-home mom was already outdated. Though it would be difficult to prove, I have a strong sense that the daughters of the Red Cross Girls, nurses and WACs, as well as all the women who undertook crucial wartime work at home, led the charge for the equality movement and second wave of feminism in the 1960s. 

Lunch break, field duty, Normandy 1944

Their post-war lives varied, but all the Red Cross Girls who left memoirs, gave oral history interviews, or otherwise reflected on their service during the war sounded a similar note: the war years were the most significant time in their entire lives. One man recounted in a recent blog that his mother made it a tradition throughout his childhood that they would put up a small tabletop Christmas tree decorated with simple handmade decorations. He recalled too that she nestled photographs from the war amidst the branches of this small tree. At the time, he didn't understand why she bothered with this simple tree when they had a larger and more lavishly decorated tree in the living room. It was many years later before his father explained that this was his mother's tribute to her "boys," the men she had known through her years as a Red Cross Girl. The little tabletop tree with simple decorations was exactly like the one she and her fellow Clubmobile crew mates put up in a small makeshift recreation club in Belgium during the cold winter of 1944 at the height of the Battle of the Bulge. I feel certain there were probably other little tabletop trees and other ways the women honored the memory of their meaningful service. 

White banner is a German surrender flag - Patton's Third Army had cleared this town days earlier and the attached Clubmobile crews moved into this hotel

Time and again, just as male WW2 veterans so often do, the women who served overseas identified those years as the ones that left the deepest mark and changed them the most profoundly. The women endured stress, anxiety, trauma, and grief -- but they also experienced adventure, independence, freedom, friendship, camaraderie, and yes, romance and love. Peace allowed them to return home, but I suspect finding true "peace ever after" was a challenge for many of these women. 

Finding a Moment of Peace in a Busy Life by Eleri Grace

 Since I'm guest-blogging later this month on the topic of peace as experienced by the Red Cross Girl heroines of my novels, I decided to use this space for a more general and personal look at peace and how I find it through the incessant demands of everyday life. 

I wear many hats -- Mom (though the time energy required by that role dwindles as my oldest is a settled college student and my youngest moves ever closer to adulthood), lawyer, author, and co-founder of a growing college consulting business. As a consequence, I cannot remember the last time I was bored or at loose ends!  There is literally always something I could be doing, something I fear I'm not doing fast enough. Many days, it feels as though I'm working from dawn to late at night. I love my writing and my college consulting work, so neither of those pursuits feel like "work" per se. But those endeavors are also not always fully relaxing either. Any writer will tell you that writing is often a hard slog -- for as many days as the words fly out of my brain faster than my fingers can type, there are equally or more days where I stare at a blank screen or drum up one inconsequential task after another to avoid settling down into the hard work of that day's writing. 

So finding moments of peace with all the competing demands on my time is a challenge. I do take an hour-long walk every morning (unless it's pouring or below 30 degrees!). My walks are peaceful on some level, but of course, frequently my mind races to college choices for one of my clients or what sort of plot twist might work for the scene I'm currently writing. My brain doesn't always fully shut out the noise. A hike (not a walk in residential Houston) can usually prompt a true sense of peace, and I'm looking forward to once again having an opportunity to get out in nature this week as my son and I take a quick vacation in Colorado. Not sure if anything can beat this stunning view of Moraine Lake near Banff National Park, but I'm sure I will find amazing scenery there too! 

Other outlets that reliably bring me peace are two of my hobbies: scrapbooking and genealogy. Even a few hours of losing myself on Ancestry's newest databases or pulling out an old genealogical brick wall to see if I can make progress gives me a mental respite from everything else. Genealogy takes persistence and often involves many hours in front of a computer screen or microfilm reader or flipping through musty heavy volumes in a county courthouse -- the very opposite of scenic nature. But it brings its own peace all the same. 

But it's scrapbooking where I can really find a good longer-lasting dose of peace and relaxation. I eagerly look forward to my bi-annual weekend trips to Galveston with a group of close friends -- not only because of the peace and creativity scrapbooking will bring, but also the fun, the laughter and tears, and the soul-searching conversations with some of my best friends. The soothing sound of the surf helps too! It's also a great place to do some early-morning writing, before losing myself in the creativity of scrapbooking. 

Wishing all of you much peace this month, wherever and however you find it best!