Wherever we go. . .

I heard a talk by author and speaker Earnie Larson a few decades ago and he said, so simply, “Wherever you go, there you are.”  I had never heard this phrase before and was rocked by it.  It was so simple and yet so profound.

I had only been sober about three years at the time and was pretty confused about many of the ideas I was being introduced to on this path.  At first I thought he was making a joke and then I let the statement have its proper impact.  Wow.  I had been switching  people, meetings, places, relationships and philosophies all of my life, expecting the external world to make me happy.  Being told that it was an inside job had escaped me.  In fact, I didn’t know what it meant.

The external world continues to be seductive, some days, usually on those days that I have not remembered to connect with God upon arising, those days when I have forgotten that who I see at the grocery deserves a smile, that whoever calls deserves to be politely listened to even if they are “interrupting” a project that has my attention.

Giving each moment over to God to make me right-sized is what guarantees that wherever we go, we will find peace.  And finally, isn’t that what we really seek?