Peace is often found in places where peace can't be defined

​The boys and I took a hike three thousand feet above the world yesterday. I frequently call these hikes escapes. But the more I learn, and think about it, I believe it's more accurate to say these hikes are a search for balance.

Our brain has two hemispheres. A left and a right. They are created to be in an ongoing conversation with one another. But if we're not careful, like everything it seems that has two sides, one side of our brain will try to gain dominance over the other. And in the case of the brain, it's almost always that left side.

The left side of our brain is obsessed with facts. It is always analyzing and has a need for definitions. The left side of our brain has this belief that the more it memorizes, like the alphabet and times tables and scriptures, the more control it will have over making all the right decisions on our behalf.

I believe the left side of our brain has an ally. It's called society. So much of our lives, when it comes to education and work and even our relationships, are driven by memorizing and analyzing and judging and needing to know how this is all going to work out.

Then there's the right side of our brain. It embraces the present moment, context, and the beauty of the undefined.

I looked at the boys yesterday, staring down at the valley, the sun out beyond the mountain tops and the shadows covering tiny distant signs of civilization below, and I said, "isn't it beautiful."

But the thing is, on that mountaintop, we all had different definitions of beautiful. It looked and felt and sounded different to each of us. None of us were pressured to know the definition of beautiful to experience beautiful.

In fact, that WAS the beauty. That WAS the peace. The freedom to experience beauty without having to know what beauty really is. The freedom to live life with enjoyment without analyzing whether or not this should or shouldn't feel like joy.

It's interesting, the right sides of our brains developed first in life. As babies, we lived in the moment. We observed and soaked up the fluid and everchanging world around us before anyone ever started defining what that world was.

As babies, we were totally consumed with being present.

I think about that a lot these days. When I get to feeling anxious or depressed or overwhelmed, I think about going back to those days of being a baby. Where you just observe and take it all in without any pressure of having to know what it all means. I think of the power I have to retreat to that most primitive part of my brain.

I think about taking a hike to the top of a mountain.

It's important that our brains have a balance. Facts and figures do have a place in making sense of our lives. But if we're not careful, we'll become dominated by those facts and figures. We'll become consumed with knowing the definition of a mountain to the point that we won't allow the mountain to simply define itself.

We will need to know what beauty is before accepting beauty's invitation to get to know it.

In a world that often thinks it needs to know the answers to experience peace, isn't it ironic that the greatest source of peace might be in places where there are none?

Maybe you don't need to escape today, but it's possible you need to find some balance. Maybe for you it's not on a mountaintop, but in music or art or in a long walk.

Don't feel pressured to know the definition of balance in your life, simply seek it.