Half Full
I’ve never been one of those people who knew exactly what they wanted to be when they grew up. I am envious of these people. They seem to have a life calling. There is a clarity of who they are and what they want to be.
My life’s work came about in the search for my life’s work. My work is more about the process. The process of discovering what I am really about and what I have to say. It’s a little bit messy, not so delineated. In order to do this I have carved out time for this life around my day job. Now my real job is getting up at 5 a.m. to meditate, do yoga, journal, tend my dreams. These things let me look at who I really am and what I have to offer.
The job I drive to is the one that sustains the real work to be done. The work that helps me become who I was meant to be. We are all unique in one way or another, our real job is the discovery of our authentic voice, our authentic self. It may feel safe to hide behind someone else’s gifts or wise words, but where does that leave us? There is no hiding when it comes to being our authentic selves. It’s all about revealing what is inside.
Each one of us has to take our own journey into the unknown. We go down deep to bring to the surface what has been forgotten or cast aside. The truth is we are the work and the more work we do, the more joy and goodness we bring to the people around us and to the world. The work we do on ourselves can be felt by everyone.
I recently saw a show about a couple who’d gone to Africa on a teaching sabbatical. They didn’t have children, didn’t want to have children. Then all of a sudden there was a boy. He started coincidently turning up everywhere they were. Then one day they realized he had no parents, was sleeping under a tree and slowly starving to death. The wife said to her husband, “I don’t think I can leave him here.” So they adopted him, took him home and raised him. He’s in college now, beginning his life journey!
Sometimes I feel, that’s us! Our innermost soul, the thing we were meant to be, just gets discarded, and sits there slowly starving to death. We go along living what we think is enough until we start to feel something is missing, or something’s not quite right. We have the job, family, money, and all the other stuff we accumulate. But when we feel like there is something more that is missing, that is our soul talking to us, asking us to look inside and remember who we are really meant to be. Buried deep inside our inmost desire sits, waiting for us to bring it home.
The work is paying attention and nurturing what we find. There are lots of ways to get in touch with that innermost desire. Whether it is drawing, dancing, writing, singing, running. It is what we do that nourishes what’s most real in us. Anais Nin said, “I think we have to work out our own salvation.” For me that’s tending to the inner garden, that which makes my soul take flight. This is the kind of life work that brings us closer to the truth of ourselves.
Our souls are calling. Here’s to bringing them home!
kb
