Today Is My Peaceful Day!
Ever since I began following the Venerable monks and their dog Aloka on their Walk For Peace - I have felt as though I had to see them in person. Not because of religion or politics or for any reason other than the intent. It is not to convert people or to argue policy. It’s love. It's healing. It’s peace. It’s intention. It’s purity. So simplistic but powerful. Peace starts within. It spreads to family. It spreads to community. It spreads further and further.
As I waited for the walk to reach me, I met an environmental lawyer that two weeks prior had left the firm she was working at to start her own practice. I love these stories. During the conversation I asked a typical question that I like to ask when mentoring new business owners - did you feel the burden lift?
The burden is a feeling many leaders experience, but few pause long enough to truly recognize. The moment when the responsibility is no longer yours. Not because you stopped caring. Not because the work didn’t matter. But because a chapter has closed, a burden has been handed off, or the outcome is finally beyond your control. It took a few days but she did feel the burden rise from her shoulders.
I felt my own weight lift while taking part in the Walk for Peace alongside the venerable monks. The pace was slow. Intentional. And at times quiet. In that quiet something became very clear.
So much of leadership and life is spent carrying responsibility that never really leaves us. Even when we’re off the clock. Even when no one is asking. Even when we are no longer with a company or a person. We carry it in our shoulders, in our thoughts, in the constant mental checklist running in the background.
The venerable monks reminded me how heavy that load can become without us noticing. With each step, there was a sense of letting go - not of values or accountability, but of the illusion that everything must always be held, solved, or controlled by us. The responsibility for peace, for direction, for outcomes didn’t rest on any one person’s shoulders in that moment. It was shared. It was collective. It was simply being present.
Leadership often teaches us how to take weight on. Rarely does it teach us how to set it down. And yet, moments like this remind me that clarity, calm, and perspective often come when we allow responsibility to pass - when it’s no longer ours to carry, or when it was never meant to be carried alone in the first place.
Sometimes the greatest relief isn’t the absence of work - it’s the release of ownership. And sometimes, you don’t find that release in a meeting or a milestone - but when you allow yourself to have quiet. To have internal peace. To be okay with letting go.
Today will be my peaceful day.
