Purpose

What is my purpose?

What is my purpose? That is a question many of us ask ourselves. Over the years, I seemed to have different purposes, different things that were important. Going to university and getting my degree; getting married; raising kids; becoming a Rites of Passage guide; getting my degree in counseling; becoming a great photographer and creating a unique technique with multiple exposures that looks like a mandala. Lately, it is building the connection to my soul. As if I did not have one before.

Like the connection to my soul, I have a deep connection to Spirit which, at times, was in the forefront and then took a back seat. Yet deep down it was always present. I became aware of energies I perceived when being out in nature - joy, peace, gratitude, awe. Over the years, as I moved more from my 'head' to my 'heart, I allowed myself to also perceive so called negative energies. Robert Edward Grant says: Our purpose is to love and be loved.?

As much as I agree with that statement, I am also aware of the tendency to look for that ONE purpose we have; 'the ring that binds them all' Initially, as a youngster, I bought into that belief and often was distraught that I could not find my purpose. Looking back, I wonder if, without cognitively being aware of, I understood that there was purpose and then there was purpose. The dictionary defines purpose as: "the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists". It is measurable, definable. The 'other' purpose is not; it is mystical, it is based on the question: As a soul, what did I want to be/do in this life? Why was I born? There is no intellectual answer for this. It is something unnamable of which I can perceive an energy. There is a knowing in my heart if I am on purpose. There is something that 'calls' me.

In differentiating between the cognitive and mystical purpose, in no way, do I want to imply that they could not overlap. Only looking at what is valued in our current, Western societies, overlapping is unlikely. The emphasis is so much on measurable success, be it wealth or accomplishments. When you follow the whispers of your soul, there is this deep sense of fulfillment, of gratitude for being able to contribute your gifts to the world. Overall, it is more likely that, in the younger years, we go for the first form of success and then, as an Elder, move into the mystical form of purpose.?

Most of my life, I have been a rebel, refusing to play the game. 'I did it my way'. And I did not step out too far. I got my college degree, got married, had kids, bought a house. That's what one did. At the same time, becoming a Rites of Passage guide was not a 'normal' profession. Wanting to be a great photographer was neither. It was not until the world changed in 2020, that I felt the call to come back to my knowledge of transitions, passages in life and then zeroed in on working with people over the age of 50, the ones on the 'downhill side' of life that I felt, I had begun to connect again with why I was born. And I needed all those detours to learn, to experience what I had to know for that.?