Today Is My Peaceful Day

As the walking monks come to the end of their pilgrimage from Fort Worth to Washington, DC, I have been thinking so much about Peace Pilgrim and her legacy. This Walk for Peace was initiated by Buddhist monks from the Hương Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center, carrying a message of peace, compassion, and nonviolence.

I read Peace Pilgrim’s book many years ago and then re-read it in 2021, and it had a profound effect on me. Peace Pilgrim was a woman who walked across the United States for decades with a message of peace, living a life of simplicity, service, and renunciation, owning almost nothing and relying on kindness, trust, and faith. Like Peace Pilgrim, these monks are walking with a message of peace.

Since I was a young girl, I have explored the concept of peace. In 2018, when I KonMaried all of my belongings through the KonMari Method, the vision for my life became clear: I wanted a life of peace and calm. At the time, I was not on a spiritual path—but as I decluttered, I felt increasingly called to find one and in many ways the path unfolded for me.

I have been surprised again and again as I’ve refined my belongings and come down to my need level—which is different for everyone—by the freedom I experience. It is truly something I wish everyone could know.

Like Peace Pilgrim, the monks take vows of renunciation and do not own anything. Peace actually owned the clothes and shoes she wore, but the monks technically do not.

These days, we are inundated with the idea that happiness comes in a box. Yet humans have always had to make a choice about materialism—it is what our culture centers, what it measures as success. And because of this preoccupation, we often miss the best things in life… the things that are free.

Words and teachings from Peace Pilgrim

“The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace. A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being that places harmony in one’s life. For me, this began with a discovery of the meaningless of possessions beyond my actual and immediate needs. As soon as I had brought myself down to need level, I began to feel a wonderful harmony in my life between inner and outer well-being, between spiritual and material well-being.”

“Some people seem to think that my life dedicated to simplicity and service is austere and joyless, but they do not know the freedom of simplicity. I am thankful to God every moment of my life for the great riches that have been showered upon me. My life is full and good, but never overcrowded. If life is overcrowded, then you are doing more than is required for you to do.”

“Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. If you have them, you have to take care of them.”

“After a wonderful sojourn in the wilderness, I remember walking along the streets of a city which had been my home for a while. It was 1 PM. Hundreds of neatly dressed human beings with pale or painted faces hurried in rather orderly lines to and from their places of employment. I, in my faded shirt and well worn slacks, walked among them. The soles of my soft canvas shoes moved noiselessly along beside the clutter of trim, tight shoes with stilt-like heels.

In the poor section I was tolerated. In the wealthier section some glances seemed a bit startled, and some were disdainful.

On both sides of us as we walked were displayed the things that we can buy if we are willing to stay in the orderly lines day after day, year after year. Some of the things are more or less useful, many are utter trash. Some have a claim to beauty, many are garishly ugly. Thousands of things are displayed – and yet, my friends, the most valuable are missing. Freedom is not displayed, nor health, nor happiness, nor peace of mind. To obtain these things, my friends, you may need to escape from your orderly lines and risk being looked upon disdainfully.”

The simplified life is sanctified life,
Much more calm, much less strife.
Oh, what wondrous truths are unveiled —
Projects succeed which had previously failed.
Oh, how beautiful life can be,
Beautiful simplicity.

I am very inspired and grateful for the response to the monks. Thousands of people came out to see them, to bless them, and to receive their blessing. At the end of the walk the lead monk Bhikkhu Pannakara offered a practice to start each morning by affirming:

“Today is going to be my peaceful day.”