{"id":1336,"date":"2010-07-12T10:10:58","date_gmt":"2010-07-12T17:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=1336"},"modified":"2025-11-03T09:53:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T16:53:05","slug":"the-inner-peace-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=1336","title":{"rendered":"The Inner Peace search"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve done my stint on the search for Inner Peace.\u00a0 You know, meditation, self introspection on your motivations, mass forgiveness of all the wrongs in your life, the world and every day irritants.\u00a0 And its not bad.\u00a0 It helped me work through a lot of anger issues I had when I was in my 20’s. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But I sometimes wonder if the search for zen inner peace sucks the capability for JOY out of a person.\u00a0 Can you truly embrace spontaneous living if you are searching for tranquility?\u00a0 Can you grab that brass ring, that unique opportunity, when you see it?\u00a0 Or are you too comfortable in your life, too contemplative of ALL possible consequences to reach for it.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve talked about this before in a different blog, the confusion about being happy with what you have AND striving for something more.\u00a0 But I recently experienced it when my friend shook her head at me as I left for Vegas, muttering, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I was shocked and saddened at the same time.\u00a0 I was going on a relaxing vacation with two men whose company I really enjoyed.\u00a0 All three of us looking forward to seeing each other and experiencing something we’d fantasized about.\u00a0 And I was baffled why she wasn’t understanding how thrilled I was.\u00a0 It wasn’t like I was worried or having second thoughts.\u00a0 I was confident because I knew these men.\u00a0 Trusted these men.\u00a0 And she was not only distrusting my judgment, she was advising me to ignore the brass ring coming my way. \u00a0 Just because it was a ring she would never touch.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I was saddened because she couldn’t be happy for my happiness.\u00a0 And then I realized her happiness was this inner search and mine was outer enjoyment.\u00a0\u00a0 Similar roads but opposite paths.\u00a0\u00a0 So I cannot begrudge her the path she’s on if it brings her happiness.\u00a0 Because I’m her friend, I love her and want her to be happy.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And she tries not to judge my promiscuity.\u00a0 Because she’s my friend and loves me and worries the shit out of herself over my actions sometimes.\u00a0 Which is what friendship is all about, being there for a person without judgment.\u00a0 So she tries to be an anchor to my willful side.
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And whenever I can I invite her onto my path to taste a little wild joy.
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve done my stint on the search for Inner Peace.\u00a0 You know, meditation, self introspection on your motivations, mass forgiveness of all the wrongs in your life, the world and every day irritants.\u00a0 And its not bad.\u00a0 It helped me … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3292,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions\/3292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}