“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.” — Mary Oliver
We occupy so many roles, but the one that vexes me most is the one connected with our work.
For too many people they’ve lost touch with why they do what they do, and put it down to the human condition, i.e. it’s just the way it is.
But imagine a world where we joined our soul with our role, i.e. people pursued a true calling.
What would it look and feel like?
If you think about the job you do, or the business you run, ask yourself why you continue to run away from following your inner calling. Is it because you can’t think of anything else? Or because it’s too hard to change when you’re confronted with the fear of losing what you have? Or is it because you can’t see how you might connect the desire of your soul with something that you’ve witnessed in the outside world?
I bet, apart from the odd melancholic day here and there, you’ve never stopped to invite the question(s), let alone had the grace to sit with it, and try to come up with something deeper than the glib…”it’s just the way it is”.
I don’t know about you, but in trying to make sense of my life (not make it perfect), I’m inexorably drawn to constantly question why I do what I do. I know that even now I’m compromising on many of the things I hold dear but at some stage, most likely through my creative endeavour, I feel confident that I’ll follow my heart and not live a lie.
To change course, at whatever age, takes supreme courage but it’s far better to have tried and failed than never to tried at all. And when I talk about courage, I’m not talking about the chest-thumping exhortation approach but having the deep-seated wisdom to know which path to pursue and which to give up.
One thing I’m still not sure about is the extent to which we can ever shine a light on our true calling working for someone else. Part of me would like to think that your gifts can be expressed in any setting but another, more realistic part of my psyche, tells me that none of us will ever fully express our gifts whilst we have to answer to someone else’s calling.