As I approach the end of another calendar year, I find myself reflecting on the year that has been and marvelling at the complexity and the simplicity both locally and globally.

There can be no doubt that this year brought a multitude of fascinating, frustrating and illuminating mirrors in the form of various world leaders and local friends and foes.

When I found myself awash in the sheer lunacy of what I was seeing and experiencing, the only relief I sought was to go within and ask myself one key question: “What would love do now?” Because any other location or any other question was not going to deliver what I sought … peace.

And that, my friends, is what I am taking away with me for my annual holiday with family. That the only true path to peace is within. There is no sustainable peace or joy or happiness on offer when I am attached to and hell bent on making my external reality meet my expectations. After many years of relentlessly going down that rabbit hole, I have discovered that if I truly want inner peace then I must go within and choose to BE at peace.

There is nothing I can control or make happen in my external world. No amount of persuasion will make someone feel what I want them to feel or do what I want them to do or be how I want them to be. And yet the divine dichotomy in the paradigm of cause is that I have created all of it and yet I control none of it.

When I remember I create the whole of my own reality with love and wisdom – always – I can relax and let go and allow myself to appreciate the complexity and the simplicity of the whole and trust that there is purpose in all of it. Then I get to choose how I want to BE in relationship to whatever is occurring and thus transform not just my internal state but also my experience of my external reality including how I experience you.

Just need to remember … I get to choose.