- “You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.” ―Eckhart Tolle
So, the new year has begun for all of us and the only thing I keep thinking about is the desire for peace, the desire for quiet, and hopefully somewhere inbetween more memories to look back on as 2026 ends. I know...It sounds like a juxtaposition. In Robert Frost's very famous poem "The Road Not Taken," he writes, "Two roads diverged on a yellow road, and sorry I could not travel both..." This pretty much sums up how looking at the new year feels. So much to do...So much overthinking taking place.
For over twenty years, my life was far beyond peaceful. It was dynamic. It was sometimes heartbreaking, humorous and sometimes dangerous. A hot bath every night was my solace, my peace for 30 minutes. Today, I have more time for quiet moments, spent with just my own thoughts, my own wishes granted, my own problems solved by no one else but myself. The searching of my soul has brought me to a very different place than I was existing. It's a very complex position to be in when your entire adult life has been spent watching the world move in a much different trajectory than mine.
The inner peace and quiet I am finding comes simply by not reacting to what had initially sent me into a talispin over and over again. Not reacting becomes the challenge to finding the calmness within oneself. This was a very difficult lesson to learn. See, reacting to all of the chaos was a behavior I believed I was supposed to be living and I lived it each and every day. Now, in my present world, not reacting has become the healthier behavior and an important necessity for happiness. It is the "present tense" that matters, not the past or the future and believe me that has got to be a difficult action for many. It has been for me.
I have trained myself to take more time paying attention to my peace of mind and therein lies better health. This journey is different for all of us. There are those who have learned this much earlier in their lives and of course, those who learned the lesson too late or not at all. I am grateful that at this stage of life, the importance and the quest for peace and quiet became important to me. Do I still like want my social life and my world to be gloriously fun and exciting? Yes...Oh yes. God yes! However, as time goes by and I see the challenges, the fears and the successes, I know that I have my peace. It has come later on in my game, but it is here. It is here to stay.
So here comes year 2026. Living in the present remains a challenge but it is definitely necessary despite our past.
