As you asked…answer before reading all that you wrote. Interesting, I am currently midway through the book, The Purpose Driven Life. My purpose is to love all that cross my path, regardless of lifestyle, appearance, and status. It also means to love those that don’t adhere to my beliefs, to be patient with the challenged, to love wherever there is a need. Each day is a new opportunity to love. This may sound over-simplified "love makes the world go 'round" - but pay attention to how your body feels when someone of a different race is approaching you on a side street, or how your blood pressure rises as you're trying to explain something to someone for the 8th. time. I still can't shake the direct eye-contact I made with a homeless man two years ago, wishing I could pull over to help, but "I was in a hurry." Love opportunities present themselves every single day. My purpose is to help my neighbor, in my little world, every day.
I think the life I was born for is one of observation, introspection, and realism. I’ve been told I’m a born cynic, but that doesn’t mean being eternally pessimistic. I’ve found over the years that seeing the world in a realistic light means that I often see the negative things happening around me, but I also know that in the grand scheme of things, there is much more good out there, and things often work out for a positive result, no matter the challenge. To me, being a born cynic means I see more realistically all the factors in a situation, or all the things that could go wrong, which helps me make better decisions about how I interact with the world.
This sounds like a beautiful life, and I often find that people are called cynics anytime they don't practice constant optimism. I think having a bit of skepticism and cynicism is vital to being a good human. Stay the course. :)
I used to know in my bones that I was born to be a teacher and a voice for the voiceless in our classrooms. I used to love my work as a teacher of English Learners and coordinator of our EL program. But now I just don’t feel like I can do enough for them. I don’t feel
Teachers are freaking superheroes. You may never see the full effects you have on a child. But teachers are such a critical part of a child's development. If you feel the desire in your bones and that's how you approach your work, there's no way you're not making a difference.
You're SO making a difference. Whether you know it or not, you so very are. Saying that, I totally get that feeling. As silly as it is, I'm losing 1,000 followers a month on Instagram, and it just makes me feel like I'm not reaching people or saying anything helpful anymore. I get it.
I don't understand why you're losing followers. I see your posts on all three social medias every day. You are making a difference. Your poetry saved me and inspired me to go back to writing poetry to save myself. My 90ish followers and I plugging along on Instagram week after week keep me going.
Your voice is always helpful. I’ve purchased your books to share with others and your poetry lives on my walls. You reach people in so many ways. I think people are losing interest in social media and they are looking for a re-connection to the real world. Don’t take it personally.
I believe sometimes your purpose changes during your lifetime. We aren’t supposed to be just one thing in our lifetime. So maybe it’s time to seek out your new raison d’être.
As a teacher of nearly 28 years, I can understand how the idealism with which we first started wanes. There is a discourse in education that we are never doing enough. Heart is everything- and it will always make a difference, though you may not fully know the impact you are having on others. It’s kind of like the story of the person throwing one starfish back into the ocean. Listen to your bones.
Love is the first word that comes to mind. Finding a love and a life partner and then creating a life with someone has always been top of my list. I have always said that that matters more to me than any job. And when I lost my job and so much of my life shifted during the pandemic, it became clear to me how much my partner and our love truly meant to me. It was sustaining. At the end of the day, if I can have the love I've created with my partner, I will feel complete.
Art is the second word that comes to mind. I have always been drawn to a life of art ever since I was a child. And I've been pursuing that ever since. I have a career in film, in capturing stories, in creating videos and films for people. I'm also a writer. Words have always been part of me and writing feels like breathing to me. Necessary for survival.
Wherever life takes me, love and art will be the center.
Edit after reading the full email: I too feel deeply drawn to the darkness. I love feeling everything deeply, even when it involves pain or sadness. I find a lot of comfort in the darkness and feel more drawn to the night than day as I grow older. Feeling deeply and being true to myself are essential to my being, especially as a lover and artist. All these things are connected. I feel like I've always moved in the direction of what feels warm and true. I've been lucky enough to find jobs I love and create a life that fulfills what I desire most. Okay, this is getting too long haha. I could go on and on about this topic. In conclusion, I feel that I am living in accordance with who I am and what I want. It's the only way I've ever been taught to live. (Thanks mom and dad!)
Pretty sure I have shared this before…but during my unemployment days people would ask “well, what do you want to do?”
Most times I could answer what I didn’t want to do but it was rare that I could say what I really wanted to do with my life.
So after almost a half century circling the sun…I began to answer
“I want to be a CEO!”
The response was normally “That’s ambitious!”
But they didn’t understand…
I’m called to be a
“Chief Encouragement Officer”
Even when my day is garbage; when I can’t smile for my own - my purpose is to be the encouragement that so many will never know.
Sometimes it’s exhausting - I assume like Batman must feel after working all day and fighting crime all night…without any radioactive spider bites or kryptonic superpowers.
But I will always walk the swords double edge to encourage others whether sun or rain.
This question has been swirling around me lately. It’s showing up everywhere I turn - literally. It’s also been a question that has floated in and out of my consciousness over the past too many years. I used to get stopped in my tracks by it. I would have a visceral response to not having a grand, bold, call to action - nothing that screamed, “this is my life’s purpose!” The lack of answer made me sad, sometimes ashamed as if I wasn’t connected to my own being enough to know the answer. Now here I am, with this question in my Instagram feed, in podcasts, books and tarot cards. I don’t know if this is the full answer but the only one that’s been coming to mind lately is this: living. My purpose is to live far, wide and deep. And right now, that in and of itself feels more than enough.
That has always been enough. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Alan Watts: "The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves."
“To feel far, wide and deep” - love this so much! I’ve also struggled with purpose until I eventually came to believe that being alive and breathing love into the world is enough! 💕
Less lightning storm here, more cliff side waves crash, cold wind, wide heart soar.
Living a life of love that is the warm breath beneath each buffeting gust; love for those around, love for the whole dang earth, love for the storms themselves. Here, breathing, alive.
There is so much here in this week’s podcast. Sorry- I am quite long-winded here. But this podcast inspired a flurry of thoughts.
How do I want to live? Isn’t this life’s essential question, constantly evolving in each new season of our lives? How much choice is there in this? I spent a lot of time last summer on the beach, reading your book, miracle in the mundane, contemplating this question. We could all write volumes about this as we reflect on our lives. First I should say that there are so many good things in my life for which I should be thankful. But… we are restless creatures who long for something more. As we get older, our minds turn more toward this question knowing our time is actually running out, and if there is to be more, it needs to be now.
We are never completely free - the very relationships that bring us joy- partners, children, parents- we are responsible; they depend on us, in different ways at different times. In this way, however, they constrain us. As do our jobs and how we can afford to live. And the never-ending chores- the laundry, the groceries, cleaning. We choose roads or are thrown onto them, without knowing where they will lead and they may be difficult to exit without an end, a crossroad or some freak detour.
I have no answer to your question yet and perhaps I don’t need a definitive answer; pondering this question and all of its possibilities is perhaps of greatest importance. To feel that there are possibilities and to have the courage to go out and create them. That, at whatever age, you should defy the expectation that you should continuously follow the same path. So many voices, inward and outward, shout, No, you can’t, while one voice that whispers, Courage.
I know what things I want in my life, and I do have them in some part in my life already: creativity, love, laughter, learning, nature, beauty, friendship. Rather, should my question be, Can I live a life that always encompasses all these things at once in equal balance? I need to seek out the experiences that will bring these to my life.
This period of Covid has paralyzed us into inaction. Either we have been unable or felt unsafe to seek out new things. Perhaps we can, it is time, to come to life again.
“You tell me, and tell me when you’re ready. Either way, I’ll be there, halfway down,…waiting to meet you.” Well, you have already met me on the road, beckoning me with your words.
Couldn’t agree more with “To feel that there are possibilities and to have the courage to go out and create them.” Not being engaged/ active can be so demoralizing and make us lazy and complacent.
In this lifetime, I was born to tell the truth and help people live better. Thank God I was born to parents who never stifle my voice or teach me how to play nice. Since I was 8 I dreamed to be a mom and have a tribe of children. Thank goodness, I only ended up with 2. Two of the most magnificent human beings on the planet. I did my best to help them become the best version of who they are meant to be. Now it’s time for a new adventure. I’m being pulled toward the sun and the ocean and the desire to feed people. Not just feed, nourish people with great vegan foods. I want to show people how great tasty vegan foods can be both soul nourishing to humans and to the planet. A tall order I know. And also I’ll keep telling the truth.
This is so timely, as I'm currently at a crossroads trying to understand what it is that the Universe has in store for me, what direction I should take next. My amazing therapist has prodded me to do some meditation on this, to put the question out there: "What is it that I can do to serve my higher good?" I've openly admitted that I suck at meditation - I struggle to turn my mind off and just let it be. When I tell her I'm trying to figure it out, she says, "Stop. You don't need to figure anything out. Stop overthinking and let it be. The answer will come." I'm working on quieting my mind to let that energy flow, and hope to find my direction.
As a side note, I recently wrote a letter to my dad to tell him things I wish I had said many years ago when I still had the chance (he passed 22 years ago). At the end of that exercise, I told him how much I miss him, that I wish he were here to play with my grandsons, and chat about things in my life. I asked for some sort of sign that I'm on the right path. About an hour later, around 11:30 pm, I heard a chickadee so clearly that it could have been in the room. I got my answer. My career and my personal life have been a mess until about a year ago, so it seems things are looking up. 💜
Love your chickadee story! I also lost my dad 22+ years ago and often “talk” to him and feel his presence. I am learning to be patient and trust the timing of the Universe while trying to be the best I can be in this moment in time. Good luck to you! 💚
The sadness encoded in my DNA has taught me to always see the light, through the pain, and to fight with all I’ve got. Saddest optimist you’ll ever meet!
A wild and wandering (or running away?) life is what I want to say. But that feels out of reach. Lately, I feel a bit like a puzzle with pieces missing or wedged in the wrong way. It's hard to know where, or what, I am. But I'm determined to believe it won't stay this way. It never has before, at least not forever. I am meant for a life of making, not just repairing.
It is providential that you ask this question, at this moment. I wouldn't say I am in an existential crisis, but I am uncertain of how I might answer the question, "what life was I born to live?" For 25 years I have worked in the church as either a youth director or pastor. Yet, for years I have struggled to understand who I am. I fear that my identity has been wrapped up in what others want/wanted. Now I find at almost 45 I don't have direction, or said differently, I've lost my way. For too long I've let voices other than my own take the lead and have prominence. I am now trying to find my voice, find my purpose, and find out how to live this life before me.
That said, fear of the unknown is upon me. The path ahead is a mixture of light and dark, silence and sound, bombarding me with hope of something more if I can only recognize what is before me, or maybe within me. As the shadows dance before me I recognize them within myself, and just maybe that recognition is one of many steps that can and will lead me beyond this moment.
I have discovered that if I sit with my questions or any question long enough an answer is found, even if it is not the preconceived answer. So maybe, to answer your question of "what life was I born to live", to gain clarity in a moment of murkiness, I need to sit with this question not as a passive participant, but as one ready and willing to engage the moment before me.
At home in the sun
Surrounded by love and light
Water within reach
As always, gorgeous.
As you asked…answer before reading all that you wrote. Interesting, I am currently midway through the book, The Purpose Driven Life. My purpose is to love all that cross my path, regardless of lifestyle, appearance, and status. It also means to love those that don’t adhere to my beliefs, to be patient with the challenged, to love wherever there is a need. Each day is a new opportunity to love. This may sound over-simplified "love makes the world go 'round" - but pay attention to how your body feels when someone of a different race is approaching you on a side street, or how your blood pressure rises as you're trying to explain something to someone for the 8th. time. I still can't shake the direct eye-contact I made with a homeless man two years ago, wishing I could pull over to help, but "I was in a hurry." Love opportunities present themselves every single day. My purpose is to help my neighbor, in my little world, every day.
"To love all that cross my path." You're doing a hell of a job here, we can all testify to that. You're wonderful.
You're wonderful too, Tyler!
I think the life I was born for is one of observation, introspection, and realism. I’ve been told I’m a born cynic, but that doesn’t mean being eternally pessimistic. I’ve found over the years that seeing the world in a realistic light means that I often see the negative things happening around me, but I also know that in the grand scheme of things, there is much more good out there, and things often work out for a positive result, no matter the challenge. To me, being a born cynic means I see more realistically all the factors in a situation, or all the things that could go wrong, which helps me make better decisions about how I interact with the world.
This sounds like a beautiful life, and I often find that people are called cynics anytime they don't practice constant optimism. I think having a bit of skepticism and cynicism is vital to being a good human. Stay the course. :)
Thank you! And I also like sad songs and sad movies and sad books. Good to know I’m not alone!
I used to know in my bones that I was born to be a teacher and a voice for the voiceless in our classrooms. I used to love my work as a teacher of English Learners and coordinator of our EL program. But now I just don’t feel like I can do enough for them. I don’t feel
like I am making a difference anymore.
Showing up IS making a difference!
Teachers are freaking superheroes. You may never see the full effects you have on a child. But teachers are such a critical part of a child's development. If you feel the desire in your bones and that's how you approach your work, there's no way you're not making a difference.
You're SO making a difference. Whether you know it or not, you so very are. Saying that, I totally get that feeling. As silly as it is, I'm losing 1,000 followers a month on Instagram, and it just makes me feel like I'm not reaching people or saying anything helpful anymore. I get it.
I don't understand why you're losing followers. I see your posts on all three social medias every day. You are making a difference. Your poetry saved me and inspired me to go back to writing poetry to save myself. My 90ish followers and I plugging along on Instagram week after week keep me going.
Your voice is always helpful. I’ve purchased your books to share with others and your poetry lives on my walls. You reach people in so many ways. I think people are losing interest in social media and they are looking for a re-connection to the real world. Don’t take it personally.
I believe sometimes your purpose changes during your lifetime. We aren’t supposed to be just one thing in our lifetime. So maybe it’s time to seek out your new raison d’être.
I agree. I'm just not brave enough yet to attempt to make a life out of writing.
As a teacher of nearly 28 years, I can understand how the idealism with which we first started wanes. There is a discourse in education that we are never doing enough. Heart is everything- and it will always make a difference, though you may not fully know the impact you are having on others. It’s kind of like the story of the person throwing one starfish back into the ocean. Listen to your bones.
Thank you. This is beautiful. I hope there are some starfish I can make a difference for.
Born for Love, and the sunlight and under the moonlight, flowing in the water, down the road. Peaks of laughter.
Danita, this is so damn fantastic. Thank you.
Love is the first word that comes to mind. Finding a love and a life partner and then creating a life with someone has always been top of my list. I have always said that that matters more to me than any job. And when I lost my job and so much of my life shifted during the pandemic, it became clear to me how much my partner and our love truly meant to me. It was sustaining. At the end of the day, if I can have the love I've created with my partner, I will feel complete.
Art is the second word that comes to mind. I have always been drawn to a life of art ever since I was a child. And I've been pursuing that ever since. I have a career in film, in capturing stories, in creating videos and films for people. I'm also a writer. Words have always been part of me and writing feels like breathing to me. Necessary for survival.
Wherever life takes me, love and art will be the center.
Edit after reading the full email: I too feel deeply drawn to the darkness. I love feeling everything deeply, even when it involves pain or sadness. I find a lot of comfort in the darkness and feel more drawn to the night than day as I grow older. Feeling deeply and being true to myself are essential to my being, especially as a lover and artist. All these things are connected. I feel like I've always moved in the direction of what feels warm and true. I've been lucky enough to find jobs I love and create a life that fulfills what I desire most. Okay, this is getting too long haha. I could go on and on about this topic. In conclusion, I feel that I am living in accordance with who I am and what I want. It's the only way I've ever been taught to live. (Thanks mom and dad!)
Once again, this is just so damn lovely. "Wherever life takes me, love and art will be the center." What a perfect way to go through this world.
Pretty sure I have shared this before…but during my unemployment days people would ask “well, what do you want to do?”
Most times I could answer what I didn’t want to do but it was rare that I could say what I really wanted to do with my life.
So after almost a half century circling the sun…I began to answer
“I want to be a CEO!”
The response was normally “That’s ambitious!”
But they didn’t understand…
I’m called to be a
“Chief Encouragement Officer”
Even when my day is garbage; when I can’t smile for my own - my purpose is to be the encouragement that so many will never know.
Sometimes it’s exhausting - I assume like Batman must feel after working all day and fighting crime all night…without any radioactive spider bites or kryptonic superpowers.
But I will always walk the swords double edge to encourage others whether sun or rain.
Grace and Peace
Love and Hope
Kindness and Comfort
Wash over all who read this.
🔥 aho 🪶
This is amazing!! You go!!!
Adam, you're so the CEO of this group. I hope you know that, and feel it, and know how valued it is here. Perfect.
👏🏾
This question has been swirling around me lately. It’s showing up everywhere I turn - literally. It’s also been a question that has floated in and out of my consciousness over the past too many years. I used to get stopped in my tracks by it. I would have a visceral response to not having a grand, bold, call to action - nothing that screamed, “this is my life’s purpose!” The lack of answer made me sad, sometimes ashamed as if I wasn’t connected to my own being enough to know the answer. Now here I am, with this question in my Instagram feed, in podcasts, books and tarot cards. I don’t know if this is the full answer but the only one that’s been coming to mind lately is this: living. My purpose is to live far, wide and deep. And right now, that in and of itself feels more than enough.
That has always been enough. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Alan Watts: "The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves."
SO MUCH MORE than enough. Beautiful Missy. Beautiful.
“To feel far, wide and deep” - love this so much! I’ve also struggled with purpose until I eventually came to believe that being alive and breathing love into the world is enough! 💕
This is beautiful, Tyler.
Less lightning storm here, more cliff side waves crash, cold wind, wide heart soar.
Living a life of love that is the warm breath beneath each buffeting gust; love for those around, love for the whole dang earth, love for the storms themselves. Here, breathing, alive.
There is so much here in this week’s podcast. Sorry- I am quite long-winded here. But this podcast inspired a flurry of thoughts.
How do I want to live? Isn’t this life’s essential question, constantly evolving in each new season of our lives? How much choice is there in this? I spent a lot of time last summer on the beach, reading your book, miracle in the mundane, contemplating this question. We could all write volumes about this as we reflect on our lives. First I should say that there are so many good things in my life for which I should be thankful. But… we are restless creatures who long for something more. As we get older, our minds turn more toward this question knowing our time is actually running out, and if there is to be more, it needs to be now.
We are never completely free - the very relationships that bring us joy- partners, children, parents- we are responsible; they depend on us, in different ways at different times. In this way, however, they constrain us. As do our jobs and how we can afford to live. And the never-ending chores- the laundry, the groceries, cleaning. We choose roads or are thrown onto them, without knowing where they will lead and they may be difficult to exit without an end, a crossroad or some freak detour.
I have no answer to your question yet and perhaps I don’t need a definitive answer; pondering this question and all of its possibilities is perhaps of greatest importance. To feel that there are possibilities and to have the courage to go out and create them. That, at whatever age, you should defy the expectation that you should continuously follow the same path. So many voices, inward and outward, shout, No, you can’t, while one voice that whispers, Courage.
I know what things I want in my life, and I do have them in some part in my life already: creativity, love, laughter, learning, nature, beauty, friendship. Rather, should my question be, Can I live a life that always encompasses all these things at once in equal balance? I need to seek out the experiences that will bring these to my life.
This period of Covid has paralyzed us into inaction. Either we have been unable or felt unsafe to seek out new things. Perhaps we can, it is time, to come to life again.
“You tell me, and tell me when you’re ready. Either way, I’ll be there, halfway down,…waiting to meet you.” Well, you have already met me on the road, beckoning me with your words.
Couldn’t agree more with “To feel that there are possibilities and to have the courage to go out and create them.” Not being engaged/ active can be so demoralizing and make us lazy and complacent.
In this lifetime, I was born to tell the truth and help people live better. Thank God I was born to parents who never stifle my voice or teach me how to play nice. Since I was 8 I dreamed to be a mom and have a tribe of children. Thank goodness, I only ended up with 2. Two of the most magnificent human beings on the planet. I did my best to help them become the best version of who they are meant to be. Now it’s time for a new adventure. I’m being pulled toward the sun and the ocean and the desire to feed people. Not just feed, nourish people with great vegan foods. I want to show people how great tasty vegan foods can be both soul nourishing to humans and to the planet. A tall order I know. And also I’ll keep telling the truth.
This is so timely, as I'm currently at a crossroads trying to understand what it is that the Universe has in store for me, what direction I should take next. My amazing therapist has prodded me to do some meditation on this, to put the question out there: "What is it that I can do to serve my higher good?" I've openly admitted that I suck at meditation - I struggle to turn my mind off and just let it be. When I tell her I'm trying to figure it out, she says, "Stop. You don't need to figure anything out. Stop overthinking and let it be. The answer will come." I'm working on quieting my mind to let that energy flow, and hope to find my direction.
As a side note, I recently wrote a letter to my dad to tell him things I wish I had said many years ago when I still had the chance (he passed 22 years ago). At the end of that exercise, I told him how much I miss him, that I wish he were here to play with my grandsons, and chat about things in my life. I asked for some sort of sign that I'm on the right path. About an hour later, around 11:30 pm, I heard a chickadee so clearly that it could have been in the room. I got my answer. My career and my personal life have been a mess until about a year ago, so it seems things are looking up. 💜
Love your chickadee story! I also lost my dad 22+ years ago and often “talk” to him and feel his presence. I am learning to be patient and trust the timing of the Universe while trying to be the best I can be in this moment in time. Good luck to you! 💚
The sadness encoded in my DNA has taught me to always see the light, through the pain, and to fight with all I’ve got. Saddest optimist you’ll ever meet!
Give me steep trails and obstacles
To keep the fire burning
But treat me to calm seas sometimes
Dark rainy days for rest
And dusty roads
To keep the hope alive
A wild and wandering (or running away?) life is what I want to say. But that feels out of reach. Lately, I feel a bit like a puzzle with pieces missing or wedged in the wrong way. It's hard to know where, or what, I am. But I'm determined to believe it won't stay this way. It never has before, at least not forever. I am meant for a life of making, not just repairing.
It is providential that you ask this question, at this moment. I wouldn't say I am in an existential crisis, but I am uncertain of how I might answer the question, "what life was I born to live?" For 25 years I have worked in the church as either a youth director or pastor. Yet, for years I have struggled to understand who I am. I fear that my identity has been wrapped up in what others want/wanted. Now I find at almost 45 I don't have direction, or said differently, I've lost my way. For too long I've let voices other than my own take the lead and have prominence. I am now trying to find my voice, find my purpose, and find out how to live this life before me.
That said, fear of the unknown is upon me. The path ahead is a mixture of light and dark, silence and sound, bombarding me with hope of something more if I can only recognize what is before me, or maybe within me. As the shadows dance before me I recognize them within myself, and just maybe that recognition is one of many steps that can and will lead me beyond this moment.
I have discovered that if I sit with my questions or any question long enough an answer is found, even if it is not the preconceived answer. So maybe, to answer your question of "what life was I born to live", to gain clarity in a moment of murkiness, I need to sit with this question not as a passive participant, but as one ready and willing to engage the moment before me.
Shadows dance around
As I search for my true self
Within me is life.