THE MYTH OF OUR LIFE PURPOSE
When we are small, people often ask us, "what will you BE when you grow up?" The problem with that question is that it is often answered with what we think we will DO. "I will be a fireman, a teacher, a doctor," are often the answers given to nodding adults who are well pleased. Yet the correct answer should be "I will be a better version of myself". For the children already are being. In fact, they are often being a higher expression of themselves than they ever will be in adulthood. As a child, they are exploring and imagining and dreaming and believing in magic and defining who they are to themselves. They are becoming aware that they are separate beings with minds, and thoughts and dreams and experiences that are quite different from their peers, yet their peers make life much more fun. They are being themselves in all their magnificence....dirty, playful, curious, enthusiastic beings.
Yet we ask a question about what they want to be; as if that implies that they are merely just wasting time growing, trying to get to that adult land of responsibility and conformity and worry and stress.
Where often, adults scratch their heads and say "I wonder what my life purpose IS?" I, too have asked that question. I have stood in an empty nest and said "what am I, if not a mother?". I have stood in retirement and said "Who am I, if not a teacher?' What am I supposed to be when I grow up?
I am supposed to be ME. The same, if not better version of me that was in all my incarnations...a teacher, mother, lover, honoring the elderly, the other-abled and all disenfranchised beings. Whether I am actively WORKING or not, I am being. I am always being. I always have a choice to be the best that I can and to make a difference in someone else's life. And I get to have fun while doing it. I get to be dirty and happy and explore, and dream and believe in magic. No matter what my J.O.B is. What I do for an income and who I am are not one and the same, though if done right, the job is the perfect expression of your core beliefs.
What is my life purpose? According to hand analysis, it is a leader with heart. I have done that in many different versions of being. And whether I work a job or not, that is still my purpose. But if I had to define my life purpose in my own words, it would say "to have made the world better for my having been in it". To make a difference. To make someone smile, to make someone remember how to play, to dream, to believe. To not take themselves and this life so seriously and to share all that they are with others.
I raised some amazing children. The eldest child now has 3 young ones of her own. She came home from a parent conference at school one day and said "I heard what was most important about my child. Although reading and math and other things are important, what really counts is that she is being a wonderful human being. She is sharing, caring and being nice to others."
I had the 2 oldest grandchildren at my house this week. I had offered to take the eldest by herself to give her some one on one "Nama time" but she immediately said "but what about Lauren/" She is all about seeing that her sisters are happy also. And as we sat in my living room having cuddle time, I watched Lauren give of herself over and over again to her older sister, and to me. She cuddled and hugged and made the world better just because she was in it. Both of those children were living their life purpose. What they do when they grow up is less relevant than how they do it. And they just prove over and over again that we know our life purpose from the beginning and forget it along the way.
If you come to me for a hand analysis, I will remind you what your life purpose is. I will not say "oh look, you were supposed to be a fireman or a doctor or a plumber". I will tell you what your gifts are, your strengths are and the great personality you have to make that happen. But how you make that happen is always up to you. Your life purpose is to be the best version
of yourself...whatever that looks like, and to try hard to be better
at it each and every day.