Don't Wander Too Far

Let me not wander from the way of peace, for I am lost on other roads than this.
-ACIM-w-220:2

Why is it so freaking hard to get a little peace around here?

Probably because most of us don't even realize it is peace we are looking for.  We are searching, reaching, wanting, and waiting for something to fill us, make our dreams come true, and our lives as exciting and wonderful as all those glamorized  lives we follow on social media. We are told that in order to 'get that elusive something' we have to work hard, struggle, fight, be better than or at least as good as those we follow or creep. We need to accept chaos, destruction, disruption and a lack of harmony in order to get there but it will all be worth it in the end. We wander far and away from what we truly need and want. Achieving happiness, then, becomes a competitive struggle.

This type of happiness ain't peace!

This search for  externally derived happiness is not the way of peace and it is not what we are truly looking for. What are we wanting to gain from those external, media-sensationalized things we strive for anyway?

What do we really believe they are going to give us besides an 'idea of happiness or success'?  Ego will tell us this struggle will eventually give us everything we need...well at least what is needed to survive in this cruel world of separated individuals and never ending defense and attack. Is ego speaking the truth? 

It is true we are looking for something but that something is not out there and that something is not as temporary or fast changing as the profile pics that pop up on our screens.  It is in here...and it is unchanging, and everlasting. What we truly want  is not temporary pleasure or 'ideas' of happiness that never feel like happiness for very long. We want peace! Yet the more we travel toward external happiness, the further off the path to peace we are. We are lost on any other road.

The difference between external happiness and peace

External happiness isn't real!  It is just a two dimensional idea.  Just like the photo shopped  images we see of smiling people living perfect lives on Facebook are just tricks to get you and the provider to believe  that the struggle is worth it, ego tricks and deludes us into following its path to something we will never ever reach.

The external pursuit of happiness is just an ideal, an ego trick, a path to nowhere.  Sure when we attain one of these things ego tells us we need to be happy...we will feel pleasure, a certain happiness for a while but it will not last.  If we get the job, the car, that big house, graduate, or find our 'soul mate' we believe we are happy for a while.  That thing, however, will not last or the pleasure it provides will not last.

 Nothing in this physical world lasts.  It is subject to change, deterioration, loss and death. And when we lose it or the feeling...we will have to go on a search for some other thing further along ego's path, to something else, something better. "This didn't work but if I get this next thing I will be happy."  We  find ourselves living in a constant state of, "I will be happy when..." but like all future projections, when never arrives.

Peace, on the other hand...is a different path.  It is a path inward to the eternal,  never changing Self.  Peace is not dependent on external things.  It doesn't wax, wane or fluctuate as the things around us do.  It is constant and real. It soothes and calms.  It connects and expands us as we follow the truth of who we really are.  Is that not what we truly want?

Peace doesn't require struggle or a fight to make it.  It is effortless involving nothing but a letting go. Peace is already within us and all we have to do is let go of all the illusions and distorted ideas that have fallen like a veil over it.  Peace is here and peace is now and  we just need to wake up to it.  That simple!

There is nothing wrong with going for that job, or that purchase or that degree, recognition or person....but just know that it is not that external thing that will bring you the peace you truly want.  It is something far greater, far more permanent and everlasting that brings peace. 

Peace out trumps external happiness every time and all you have to do to discover that...is to let go of this idea that you need external happiness. You already have all you need.  You already are all you need.  You have peace, you are peace. 

Instead of wandering aimlessly on these roads that go nowhere,  go home! You will find the peace you are looking for there, where it has always been.

All is well in my world!