When talk of resolutions and goals for
the New Year peaked in early January, I started thinking about the bigger
picture – the purpose of my life. In the
context of my January birthday and my focus on making the most of my remaining
days, I was keen to articulate what I viewed as my life’s real purpose. I had a very busy month with my birthday, my
daughter’s birthday and my grandson’s birthday within a ten-day period. I was also helping to stage another daughter’s
house to get it ready to sell. Then I
was felled by a cold that lingered. Just
when I thought it was over, it would take on a new twist.
Remembering
my intention to try to appreciate each moment, I let go of the pressure of
trying to write this in January. I cut
back my schedule as much as I could to make my illness more palatable, and made
getting well my priority. There were too
many times in my life when I made myself work through a cold so I wouldn’t get “behind.” Fortunately quite a few years ago I decided that
editing things off my to-do list made more sense. And I can’t even remember anything
significant that got left “behind.”
During
this down time I have ruminated on the whole “life’s purpose” possibilities,
and have had a few interesting trains of thought. At first it seemed like a tangled necklace of
issues - goals, expectations, accomplishments, hopes, stalled projects – that
litter the trail of my life. Some of
these things are still alive, as a bucket list of sorts. Not things I want to do or places I want to
go – (yes, there are places I still want to go like Machu Pichu!) but I am
thinking of how I want to Be in my life.
I
have spent many years of my life consciously seeking to be my highest
self. Beginning as a glimmer with “what’s
it all about, and where do I fit in” thoughts from childhood to Socrates “the
unexamined life is not worth living” from college philosophy, the underlying
question of my life’s purpose has been being refined as I have lived. One of my more recent discoveries has been
from a very readable, short book by Paul Johnson titled Jesus: A Biography
from a Believer. He outlines a “new
ten commandments” taken from the deeds and words of Jesus. His first commandment (I paraphrase, here)
says that it is man’s duty to become self-aware. We are each given a unique personality with a
mortal body and a timeless soul, in which our character is preserved. It is up
to us to shape this personality that is given to us at birth. To make the most of the gifts we have been
given and strive to make conscious and ethical choices. This forms the basis of
what I view as man’s ultimate purpose in life.
This
is where the “my life’s purpose is like a basket” analogy comes in. There’s so much that needs to be “done” in daily
life – earning a living, taking care of family, food, shelter, transportation,
fixing things that break, health issues, chickens and ducks - ok, not everyone
has the chicken and duck piece - and on and on.
Then there are all the other things I plan - the dreams and goals. This whole bunch of tangles is part of
something larger. All of these begin,
and sometimes end, in my head. Some of
them never make it off the launch pad! Some
of them have been rattling around in there for years. It isn’t a problem to hold on to hopes, plans
or dreams, but when they become expectations that disappoint me, that make me
feel like I’ve somehow failed, they are diminishing the quality of my life.
So
I picture my life’s purpose - the development of my personality, the ongoing
“peeling the onion” of my highest self – like a basket that holds all the other
stuff. All the things I do, all the
highs and lows of daily life are held within the context of “who I am” – the
qualities God gave me. I like the expression
that has been printed in various forms that “life is a gift from God and what
we do with it is our gift to Him.”
As
for my tangle of goals and dreams, my bucket list of lifetime desires, I am
going to actually make a written list and examine it. Some things I may cross off as not worth the
effort of even thinking about, with others I have already begun to re-define
what they mean, and with some I think I am already doing it. I don't want to spend my precious time being overwhelmed by trying to do everything I may once have dreamed of.
"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary
so that the necessary may speak."
Hans Hoffman
"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary
so that the necessary may speak."
Hans Hoffman
