Shoreline Times 1/27/11 By Bryan Ethier Special to the Times WESTBROOK - The trek that swept Joe Baxter from his home in Westbrook to New York’s soulful Catskill Mountains began and ended, spiritually, with a journey within himself. “So many people get caught up in the day-to-day shuffle, and sometimes they lose sight of what truly makes them happy,” said Baxter, who doubles as a social worker for the Department of Children and Families and a filmmaker. Baxter recently went “outside” to discern and clarify his sense of happiness “within.” His new documentary film, “Solo: Finding Peace” chronicles his one-week solo quest for inner peace through a respite in the Catskill Mountains. Baxter filmed and edited the documentary himself. The DVD version of the film will be available for purchase on Jan. 30 at www.solofindingpeace.com. In addition Baxter will screen the documentary at 3:30 p.m., Jan. 30, at The Outer Space in Hamden. Tickets can reserved by sending an email to lifesouttakes@yahoo.com. “It’s not necessary to go anywhere to find peace,” he says. “However, I decided to start my process through solitude, mindfulness, and prayer. I selected the Catskill Mountains because I wanted to be close enough to Connecticut where I could drive, and the Catskill Mountains have national wilderness. This was important because in national wilderness you do not have to camp in a designated campsite. It was my goal to not see another person for the whole week I was away, so finding a site that was off the beaten path is what I needed.” Baxter, by his own admission, is no spiritual guru. Married, with two children, he also owns a small production company called Life’s Outtakes Productions. He calls himself a “nature enthusiast, a fisherman, a guitarist, and an optimist” who seeks balance in his busy world – emotionally, physically, and spiritually. So, he began to search for the answers to life’s most enduring questions, especially, “What does it all mean?” To find the answer to that timeless question, he began studying different cultures and religions, searching for “common themes and principles to apply to daily living.” Slowly, the concept of “Solo: Finding Peace” emerged and blossomed from a seed, into a calling. He prepared for the spiritual journey in the Catskills by interviewing experts in the fields of spirituality and metaphysics: a Yoga specialist, a Buddhist monk, and a Christian Bishop. “Through the process of being alone in solitude and trying new techniques to me such as Yoga and meditation, I began to reach levels of inner peace as the days were going by,” says Baxter. “The pivotal point in my experience was during a night I spent in a small cave after getting lost looking for water. In the cave I experienced extreme emotions until I started meditating and praying. I got to a point where I had an epiphany. In the very undesirable situation, my relationship with God changed. The way I pray changed. I stopped praying with my head and truly opened my heart. “The difference was like praying like I was leaving a message on an answering machine to Jesus, and he’ll get around to listening to it when he has some extra time, to actually having a direct connection and true relationship with God. Our minds are full of judgments, desires, and in some ways corruption, from the everyday material world we all live in. Our heart or soul is a pure representation of our true selves. Becoming aware of that insight has changed my life, and perspective of the world.” Baxter says the true test for spiritual peace comes when one returns to the loud, frenetic material world. “Peace is available to anyone at any time… What I came up with, is it starts with truly being open to allowing peace to exist in your life. There has to be a balance. Enjoy the wonderful material things that we have developed for ourselves, but understand your relationship with it. What I mean is, it doesn’t really matter what you have, but more importantly why you have it. You have to let go of the pain and anger you still hold on to from the past, and stop worrying about what might happen in the future. If you enjoy every moment that is presented to you as it happens. Even when something seems undesirable, there is so much to learn from every experience we have. In addition to this, for me, finding a new level of my relationship with God was a huge push towards accessing inner peace. As a social worker, Baxter has witnessed numerous situations when others – especially children – struggle to find their personal equilibrium. He says the journey through the Catskills will help him create positive results for children. “Many of the children and adolescents I work with struggle with seeing the positive aspects of life. They view themselves as victims and have a hard time seeing a bright future for themselves. After completing this experience I believe I have a better ability to provide them with hope and positive motivation. I think as a result, they become empowered and start seeing themselves in a different light. They see more potential and possibility in themselves.

This is the first film I ever made. I filmed, edited, color corrected, sound, music, art work and design, and believe me, I learned a lot about the process. It took a while to come together but I'm very happy with the final product.