Contentment Leads to Peace

“I love my life.” It became a mantra there for a while. Not that I was trying to convince myself, but because it just bubbled up and had to be spoken out loud. I know. It sounds corny. Joel thought so as well when we worked together and he had to suffer my random outbursts of joy. Yet, it is true. Very true. Even more so now than it was back then a few years ago.

I truly do love my life.

And what is not to love? I am surrounded by the people I love and who love me and doing the thing I love to do. I have all I need and I am able to go wherever I want when I want. Even if I couldn’t, I would still love my life. The trips are a mere bonus, a pat on the back.

I’ve shared before how I am quite content staying in my home or lounging in my backyard and never leaving the front stoop. I feel that way because I am quite content with how my life is and what I have in it. I’m not eagerly panting after the next big gadget or gizmo. I am not waiting for that next purchase before I am satisfied. There is nothing else I need. There is nowhere else I need to go. I am not longing after someone in my life that hasn’t arrived yet. I am content.

It’s because of that contentment that I am also at peace–with myself, my lot in life, my relationships. I am at peace with my journey as it is.

The reason most of us are not at peace is because we are still trying for more. More clothes. More technology. More car. More home. More everything. More anything. Just more. We are never content with what we have. I’m not saying it’s wrong to want things or even nicer things. I’m already planning a new sitting area in my backyard with a deck and new furniture and giant plants in planters. For now, however, I have two old chairs and a round glass table sitting there with the branches of my oak tree as my covering. Squirrels dart above head and birds dart in and out of the branches. I’ll have my dream area one day, but for now what I have is perfectly fine. I don’t sit there mumbling to myself how I wish it was already different. I also don’t sit there and dream of what it will be sometime in the future. I enjoy it as it is right now.

That’s the key, the main ingredient of peace. Contentment. If you can find satisfaction with what you have right where you are, then you will have peace. If you can’t find it, then you need some lessons on being satisfied. Your focus of what is truly important needs a shifting of gears. Peace isn’t an outward destination. Governments can’t give it to you. Friends can’t give it to you. Not even your family can give it to you. Peace comes from within once you are satisfied with the things that are without and in the end, it is only that which is within that really matters.

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