Making Peace with Your Purpose

We tell ourselves we’re looking for our purpose. Perhaps it’s true.

But it’s just as likely we already know our purpose and won’t accept it. We think it’s not sexy enough or important enough. We may not think it’s very profitable. We might find it a bit too strange or even too pedestrian.

But every day, we wake up, look in the mirror, and it’s there staring back at us. We pretend not to see it. We head out the door and look for a better purpose elsewhere. We search for a new job, we scan the shelves for a new book, we trace our fingertip along a map and dream of distant places.

But when we get home, the thing’s still there, sitting in a corner waiting for us to notice. And whether or not we ever do, it will stay there until we disappear.

All my life, I’ve been a paradox. In public, with people I know, I’m a chatterbox. In high school, I was the class clown and the drama guy. At work, I’m pretty much the same thing. But in private, I’m quiet and that’s always scared me a little.

It seems dangerous to be quiet in a noisy world. The spoils, I’ve been told, go to the alpha males. They get the girls, the power positions, the sports cars.

But I’ve always known my purpose. I’ve always known what makes me tick. I just chose to ignore it, and when I couldn’t ignore it, I tried to run away from it. Maybe you’ve been running too.

For a long time, I dreamed of making a big splash, but I may have to settle for creating a series of quiet ripples, because that’s where I find my peace.

I read poems. I look at things. I listen to music. I write. I draw. I ponder. I gently fumble my way across the frets and strings of my guitar.

My purpose, it seems, is to take notice and share what I’ve seen and heard. I’m a poet. All I really have to do is be one in everything I do.

And all you have to do is be whatever it is you are in everything you do too. Maybe you’re a healer. Maybe you’re an artist. Maybe you’re an organizer, a leader, or a numbers cruncher. Whatever it is you are, don’t ignore it; just be it.

We’ve been lead to believe that it’s all about competition, that the world has to be divided into winners and losers. But it’s really about contribution. That’s how we’ve really survived as a species, which is why we all have a stake in the well being of others.

You can do your piece by playing the part you’ve been given, by being the person you already are, and doing so with all the brilliance you can muster.

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