Neema Ejercito (she/her/hers), Low Entropy Volunteer Writer
When I consider the concept of inner peace, my inner artist immediately yells, “It’s a right! It’s a basic human right!”
I’ve been married for 22 years, and at a breaking point, I decided that peace in the household was far, far better for me than being right, a Canadian Screen Award (screenwriting goal), a Governor General’s Literary Award (ouch, but yes, that too) or a Sobey Art Award, as household peace is refined by fire after tornado after pestilence after . . . you get what I mean. It has even come down to me expecting that every member of my family needs to figure out their own peace to be not only better members of our family unit, but better members of society.
You might think that my thinking is too simple, the idea that, at the root of all the mess going on now in the world are people who did not take the time to work on themselves, who chose being right over working on their inner peace, who kept on blaming others instead of taking accountability. If this is too simple for you, dear reader, please correct all of these issues in yourself and you will see that improving in all these areas is actually more meaningful work than looking outside, having a high IQ over EQ, and not owning up to your responsibilities.
It really is quite disheartening to be teaching my kids about how to be a better version of themselves for the world when I am not aware of how I have allowed it to be this way. I may not be the president of a country or head of a billion-dollar empire, but I have supported these shmucks by not checking what I am buying into when I purchase something from that country or corporation. I’m not saying I do this perfectly all the time, but I have lately been more conscious and cautious before I click to checkout or get on a website.
I am grateful for the support the British Columbia health care system has provided and continues to provide for me in helping me find my inner peace, and that is why I think it is a necessity for all of us, in as many ways as we can possibly have it. The system is not perfect; nothing in this world is, but when we go inward, though life doesn’t necessarily get easy, choosing life and choosing to work on ourselves are actually healthy, positive choices to be better for others.
I remember the first children’s story I wrote and am still developing to this day, to which I attach my first rejection letter as a writer. Ever since I was seven, I felt the pressure to know what I would want to be when I grew up. And it frustrated me to no end, not being able to know. I carried that question with me through high school, through university, even when I had chosen my major, but I still did not know what I wanted to be. I finally put thoughts to paper in an effort to answer my question. Sorry to spoil the ending because I am still working on publishing it, but it ends with the mother letting the girl know that it’s okay to just be quiet sometimes so that we can hear the heart speak.
Circling back to my realization today, I realize how right that mother in my children’s story is. Basically, we can struggle all we want, fight all the demons at our gates, but without finding our own quietness, it’ll all be for naught.
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Before returning from her summer vacation in the Philippines with her partner and three offspring last year, Neema Ejercito did not realize that she still had so much to write about, such as the boredom she felt raising her eldest at her in-laws’ place when she and her husband hadn’t moved out yet. Or how surreal it was to watch her youngest learn to swim at the country club where she had learned to do so as well. She currently wonders if she will ever write about being a mother to a bunch of plants, all of whom she adores and loves to watch grow as much as her kin.