The quest leads one away to new adventures
By Richard Carey
When Sally McKirgan asked me to take over her stewardship of the Inner Peace column in 2021, the column was still being published in print in the Ashland Tidings. Just as we finished arranging the hand-off, the Tidings suddenly closed down. For a while, the column ran in the Mail Tribune, but that didn’t last long either. Fortunately, Ashland.news picked it up, and it’s been running regularly here since January 2022.
Now, with some sadness, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to move on. In my own pursuit of inner peace, I’ve got a few bucket list items to take care of, and I’m not getting any younger. As to the future of the column itself, that will depend on the editors at Ashland.news, who have been so helpful to me over the past 2½ years. I just want to say how much I appreciate them and all of you who’ve supported the column since I took over. Thank you all.
I wish I could close out with something profound and epiphanic. What initially drew me to the column was my interest in the search for inner peace and understanding what it truly is. From the many contributors, I’ve learned that both the search for it and the getting of it are different for everyone.
For me, the quest never ends. It’s said that life is about the journey, not the destination, but I have a quibble with that old adage. I think it’s about both, even though, for those of us who, early on, experience life as strangers in a strange land, the nature of the destination can often be blurry and evasive. But since the journey precedes the destination, what we learn during the journey will necessarily affect how we experience the destination, whether it be temporal or transcendental.
In about two weeks, I will be dining at the rooftop restaurant pictured here, sipping a wee glass of ouzo, happily contemplating the next day’s climb to the forum, enjoying another, fleeting moment of inner peace.
Blessings to all.
Richard Carey lives contentedly in Ashland, studying the Zen of idleness, playing pickleball and scribbling out the occasional poem.
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