One feels like the exploration of Unknown while one is the accepting what already is.

One craves the new, disgusted with the old. It values growth, progress, investments into what could be, investments into Hope. It dreams of a better world in the future and drives to make it now. Purpose.

Peace feels like the antithesis. It’s an acceptance, more than that, a Gratitude for what already is. It asks us to count our blessings and appreciate alllll the things we’ve already got – and there’s a lot. Food, clean water, a place to sleep, relationships, movement of body, health. It goes on. Peace asks us to pause for a damn second and soak it all in before embarking on another journey.

They feel like a Yin and Yang, constantly at odds with each other but after the same thing. They ebb and flow inside dancing together for control. The times I’ve been able to coax them into a gentle harmony are the periods I’ve felt the best.

The term Happiness is frustrating. Peace and Purpose seem to be far more accurate components of the sense of well-being I’ve been after. And they both seem needed to get where I’m trying to go.

Purpose

More. More. More! Give me something new. Let me explore. Let me discover! Let me venture in to the unknown.

Some days it’s relentless. Unstopping and unforgiving. It’s an itch that needs to be satiated, like a drug that must be taken. Day in and day out, this feeling inside wells up and demands growth.

It demands me to step to the unknown, and understand what is not yet. This Purpose is the fire within the human. It’s the fuel we use to move forward.

I don’t think we always know exactly what it looks like, but it feels like a deep-seated emotion to just do something, contribute to a better future, to do better, go further. Just. Do. Something.

Each of our Purposes are different, dependent on our own psychology and upbringing. Some lend themselves to Connection. Some to Goal Setting. Others to the Unknown. I don’t think we’re born knowing our Purpose, rather it’s something we test and play with until we find something that scratches the itch.

Peace

And then enters Mama Bear with some warm pajamas. There’s freshly baked cookies in oven. You’ve got hot cocoa conversations, fireplace chats, and hot tub talks.

You’ve got a breath of fresh sweet air, a lazy Sunday morning, and the smell of fresh grass. You’ve got the warmth beaming down from the sun as you kick in the lawn chair. You’ve beauty of blue skies, Carmel Delites, and a good bowl of ramen.

The peaceful breath washes the worries away. MLK Jr’s Vietnamese monk friend Thich Nhat Hanh taught me that.

Harmony

It’s Peace vs Purpose… Peace and Purpose.

It’s both of them… stuck in an eternal duel that takes place everyday inside the mind.

But we need both… to varying degrees depending on who we are, but we need both. When we’re born, humans have different set points of happiness. Some higher, some lower.

I’m of the belief that those of us who are born with a lower average setpoint of happiness gravitate towards Purpose for our sense of well-being.

At times I’m envious of those who wake up and just feel good, are natively at peace with the world. But we don’t get to choose who we’re born as, just what we do with our current set of cards.

“It’s you vs you”

And that envy detracts from the parts of us that make us US. I’ve since become grateful for this lower setpoint – It’s an endless source of fuel to create the things in this world that I want to create. It’s a driver to live the life I genuinely want.

We don’t get to choose our cards, just how to play them.

It’s all a spectrum, anyways. There’s shades of grey and levels to this stuff… to most stuff. It’s Peace and Purpose and it’s just up to us to find how to factor each in to our lives.

Note:

Help me find more Peace:

• (3 hr book) Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
• (12 hour book) 12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
• (14 mins vid) The High Price We Pay for Pursuing the Wrong Things In Life
• (5 min song) Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen by Buz Luhrmann