Saturday, September 11, 2010

Purpose

After writing about the now and the journey this week, guess there is no way to avoid not talking about purpose. These are just my thoughts because there are incredible books out there written by some amazing writers that discuss purpose. I have students that question me about purpose, what it is and how to find it, I have friends who have talked with me about it.

I think that there are particular times in our lives when we really question our purpose. Usually we are young, and trying to find our way through the maze of early adult hood, we have suffered loss or trauma, or there are more years behind us than ahead. Since the very beginning of time, I believe that we humans have tried to figure out why we are here, what should we do.

There have been times in my life when I have known beyond a shadow of a doubt what my purpose in life was, and then other times, when I seemed to have no purpose whatsoever.
Some days I believe that our only purpose seems to be, "to treat others as you would have them treat you". If it were only that simple...........maybe it is. Some days I think, maybe I am just reading too much into this purpose stuff.

So here are some of my observations about purpose, I think for most of us, our purpose does change as our lives progress. But no matter what our purpose is at any given time, I agree with Matthew Kelly in The Rhythm Of Life, we should strive to be the best version of ourselves.
So that point taken, if you are a parent, then be the best parent you can be, if you are a student,
don't settle, do your best, if you are a writer, an artist, a friend, no matter what you are today,
maybe it is our purpose just to be the best version of who we are right now.

All my life I have wanted to achieve greatness, but then I have to question greatness in what?
I thought when I was a teenager that I could change the world. There are times when I think that a song I have had a hand in writing would bring that greatness, but maybe the greatness just comes down to how we treat our fellow man. Maybe that is where true greatness lies, where purpose is born.......just in how we treat each other and ourselves.

I think it is good to question our purpose, that questioning keeps us on our toes, keeps us accountable. Sometimes our purpose may be to save lives, to help change someone's path, to lead........and then sometimes maybe our purpose is to follow, to speak truth, to be kind and just give somebody a big hug and a smile.

1 comment:

  1. For me, my purpose in life is to learn to love God and as you said, my fellow man. I think learning to love in any and all circumstances takes a lifetime.

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