The Crooked Path

When we are young we ask ourselves what will I be when I grow up. When we are in high school, we fret over which college to attend, which courses to take, which degree to pursue. When we graduate from college, we search for which job we should accept or can get. As we age, we wonder if we made the right choices, if a different choice wouldn’t have led to a happier, more successful or more satisfied life. We change jobs. Sometimes we go back to school and learn new skills and change the course of our lives. Sometimes we stay put, resigned. This is our fate.

But we can see it differently. We can stop and engage now.

There are those who find their heart’s work when they are young and pursue the path that feeds their soul all their life. Occasionally we meet these people and are amazed at how right their lives fit with who they are. But most of our paths have more starts and stops, more curves in the road, more detours to navigate, more challenges to overcome. This does not mean that we have not Lived on Purpose. For us, we simply have to look deeper inside, and distill the complexity of our path to a simpler formula.

When have I felt peace? When have I understood bliss? At what moment in my life have I encountered passion for a task or for an idea? When have I felt the joy of offering something of myself and been proud of the result? Look for these clues in your life. You may find that you have had many of them.

As a mother, I can find more than a thousand moments of a Life on Purpose. As a friend, partner, worker, daughter, community member, I can find many more. As a student of life, happiness and peace, I have found countless more moments. If I string them all together, I see the purpose in my life more clearly.

Sometimes we can only see how what we do for a living is or is not on Purpose. When we look deeper into who we are, and to whom we belong we can find another story. If we give of ourselves and be present with our families, our friends, our co-workers, and our communities, we will find that a Live of Purpose is ours every moment of every day.