By: Katie Runnels
Most children worry a lot less than adults. Why do we lose our inner peace when we grow up?
During a conversation with my husband yesterday, I realized how often people “ironically” use the term “inner peace.”
I recently applied for a job at The Home Depot. I was extremely excited to find out two days ago that I got an interview for a sales associate in the lumber department. However, in a discussion last night with my husband, I realized that this dream to be a lumber lady might not be ready to come into fruition…
We are trying to downsize by selling one car, and that leaves us with one vehicle. Can we really have only one car if he works full time and I have a retail job? It is unlikely.
My husband, Chad, asked me, “how much does this job really mean to you?” I thought it was a rather dramatic questions for a part-time retail job? However, I did get the “drift” that he was trying to be sensitive to my needs. I thought,…. “I can go with it or without it. I have worked many jobs in my life… I have worked service industry jobs, retail jobs, valet jobs… you name it. I just want to be flexible. I just want to go with the flow. I want inner peace. That’s why it’s called “inner,” right? Because it comes from the inside, not a circumstance?”
Could I get any more arrogant and self righteous? I was not really having a conversation with Chad; I was having a conversation with myself. How can we say that something “outer” causes us inner peace? It is total irony. It is total hypocrisy. How do we stop running and fund the peaceful forest within? If we get peace from an outward situation, is is only fleeting. It is bound to leave us “high and dry” at some point…
Let’s take outer peace and apply it to our inner world: visualize a calm, peaceful forest with a rippling brook. Imagine you are sitting on a large rock with the sunshine warming your skin. Imagine pure bliss, comfort, peace, and job. Imagine that you are so at peace that you nod off to sleep. Now, how can we have that all the time on the inside? If the peaceful forest is an illusion, then what you are left with is the reality that everything is simply an “idea.” The forest is everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. All that exists is your perception of reality. Wherever you are, there is the ability to have perfect peace: inner peace. The key: accept that chaos and peace are perceptions of reality. When we accept reality as the unknown, we so light and peaceful we could fly.
Honey Be 