Visiting my brother in New Orleans, we stayed up way too late having philosophical discussions, as we are wont to do lately, and he made a statement that stuck with me, as I’m starting this project. That the surest way to not find inner peace is to go looking for it.
…isn’t that what we are doing here?
As I thought further, I realized that no. What we are doing here is finding ourselves, our joy, what makes our heart sing, what makes us who we are.
However, I have an assumption that knowing those things – truly knowing them in the fibers of our being so they become unshakable – will help on the path to inner peace.
And that he might not disagree with. The other thing that came up repeatedly in our conversation was the idea that giving things up (things, people, events, anything) for a pursuit of being truer to ourselves only leads to further and deeper appreciation of the things you DO choose to include in your life.
And for me at least, that is creating more inner peace than I have known in a while, and it has only been possible through learning to know myself and to make hard choices (that are become to make even while they are things hard to give up) based on what I know deep inside is right for me.
The absence of too many things, all the time… it feels a little bit like freedom. Who would’ve thought that actually giving things up, would result in feeling richer?
It is currently Passover, and one of the things we do on Passover is to find meaning in the old rituals for modern life. As it is the story for slavery to freedom, I will take this as my lesson from it this year. Freeing myself from the bonds of too many things, and finding the freedom of knowing myself.
What about you? Where do you need to find your freedom?
Have you had many choices lately that required you to pick between things that were all important to you? How did you choose in the end, or did you try to do / have them all? I would love to encourage you to make one choice this week instead of trying to do it all, and report back. Let me know how it felt. Would you do it again? Did you feel free? Feel like you were missing out? I’d love to know in the comments!
