Our Purpose in Life
I was just three months into retirement when I cracked the code.
I told my former boss, when I saw him that fall, that with all the freed-up brain space I now had, by no longer working in my career, I had actually cracked the code on our purpose in life!
Calmly with me, as he had always been if ever I said anything crazy lofty, he replied, “Well, I think you could crack codes while continuing to work!”
Haha! I don’t think so. By slowing down and freeing up gray matter in our heads, we’re perhaps more open to catch the stray inspirational nugget when it comes flying into our consciousness!
On my Tuesday morning cemetery walk with one of my best friends, she gave me a tiny book to read: The Café on the Edge of the World by John Strelecky.
I hadn’t recalled her telling me about this little book. I didn’t really know why she gave it to me to read. She said she thought I’d “get it.”
Well….I guess I did!
In retirement, I now had the gift and good fortune of being able to sit in the shade of one of my favorite trees in my yard, on a summer day, with the prettiest view in front of me, and read that little book all afternoon to its very end. When books are great for me, they cause me to pause in my reading to think, ponder. They may ask me questions and, if the book has grabbed me, I like to take a moment to come up with my answers.
I read.........
“In a small café at a location so remote it stands in the middle of the middle of nowhere, John, a man in a hurry, is at a crossroads. Intent only on refueling before moving along on his road trip, he finds sustenance of an entirely different kind. In addition to the specials of the day, the café menu lists three questions all diners are encouraged to consider:
· Why are you here?
· Do you fear death?
· Are you fulfilled?”
When a person knows the reason they’re here, according to the book, they’ve identified their Purpose for Existing – PFE for short.
I took my time reading through the little book and by the end, I had formulated my conclusion, like an Aha moment. I believe I determined the purpose for existing…..for every single human being.
I believe we all have the same purpose.
I believe our life’s mission and goal is the same for each of us --
to be of service and kind to one another using our unique skills and gifts
Some of us understand what our unique skills and gifts are and live them with purpose in our time on earth. Some of us, sadly, may never identify our gifts, but we may actually live them unknowingly because they really are our passions and inherent talents. (My plan was to become a professor and although I went into the investment field instead, I ended up leading and teaching most of my career – different path, but ultimately my inherent skills brought forth and utilized.)
I think living our purpose can show up by being a good mom or dad to a couple children, or being a teacher to many, or being a doctor healing and educating patients, or a scientist creating a cure for a disease, or Mother Teresa devoting her entire life to those in poverty, or volunteering in any nonprofit to help others, or simply smiling and saying hello to someone who might be having a trying day, or perhaps you’re Taylor Swift impacting millions with her musical talent. It doesn’t matter if we are of service and kind to one person or millions of people – the point, our purpose for existing – is that we give to someone, that we try every day to be of service and kind to others.
If you think about it, people who give to others always say they receive more than they give. They gain fulfillment and purpose and love from the giving. It is a circle among the players, making everyone involved feel better.
Conversely, if you take someone’s life, you will go to prison and live a life of isolation, sadness, despair, anger, regret. Even if you felt justified to take that person’s life, you will be imprisoned within yourself for all the degradation and self-loathing that comes from the taking.
It makes sense that our highest purpose would be giving to others – win:win – versus selfishly taking from others.
In Hillary Rodham Clinton’s latest book Something Lost, Something Gained, she talks about the song taught to her at her Methodist Sunday School: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can…to all the people you can.”
Hmmmmm. Perhaps I didn’t crack the code. If we look around, and listen, perhaps we’ve already been told, in a myriad of ways, the answer to the universal question – what is my purpose in life?
Do unto others as you would like done unto you.
Doesn’t that seem to make sense?
Doesn’t it seem like in the best world, that would be what all our lives on earth might be about?
