The Way to Peace

Peace seems to be an ever elusive dream we all chase in our lives. Always looking and searching for just a glimmer, just a moment of peace. But, the harder you chase it, the more elusive it becomes.  I found peace easy  to come by as a child, but as I got older, the more it slipped away.  Why?  Why is peace so hard to find the older we get?  The answer lies hidden within.

I love the natural world and all that’s in it so much! And I always have. Living in suburbia as a child I always found the biggest pines to hide in. Surrounded by the earthy smell, I always felt safe, peaceful and embraced. It was the one place that I could go where there were no distractions, no criticism or judgements.  Just peace. No kids teasing me about my “four eyes”, no getting into trouble for feeling and expressing joy at “inappropriate” times, no adults shutting me down for my belief that animals had spirits too and probably more integrity in general than most humans. 

As I grew, I learned to behave in a way that wasn’t  aligned with my heartfelt beliefs. I learned to fit in. I learned to hide my joy.  I learned to keep quiet when I disagreed with the adults in my life. I took off my glasses. I was unknowingly forming unconscious beliefs that my true self with its glasses and unique ideas was ugly, unimportant, didn’t fit in, and didn’t matter.   And over the years, my unconscious mind repeatedly proved all these judgements until I believed they were the truth, just ‘how I am’. 

My true self was deeply buried beneath these unconscious deeply ingrained false beliefs, suffocating, desperate to be free again. This happens to all of us to different degrees. These unconscious beliefs keep us searching outside of ourselves for solutions that never even get close to the root of our problems. In a sense, we are looking for a solution to the wrong problem in the wrong place. The peace of our true self is deep within, longing to be free. 

Finding our way back to peace is a process of searching within, questioning our unconscious beliefs, gently uncovering our true selves, layer by layer. And horses are some of the very best teachers you will find. They lovingly and without judgement help you uncover it all with tremendous patience. 

My horses saw the little girl with the glasses hiding in the pine tree. The joyous, free me, and they led me back. They taught me to love the true me.  

And this my friends is the only way to peace.