What is My Purpose? - Remembering Who You Are

“We live in a state of constant semi attention to the sound of voices, music, traffic, or the generalize noise of what goes on around us all the time. This keeps us immersed in a flood of racket and words, a diffuse medium in which our consciousness is half diluted: we are not quite “thinking” not entirely responding, but we are more or less there. We are not fully present and not entirely absent; not fully withdrawn, yet not completely available.” – Thomas Merton – Book of Hours

Merton said it well in this quote from his Book of Hours. So often in our lives we get so busy that we are swept away in a state of inertia. This state of “doing” enlivens us for a while. We have immersed ourselves into it by way of countless years of our parents and friends implying that we are only valuable in what we “do”. 

Yes our careers are important. We require money to feed and house ourselves and also to care for our loved ones. The work we do also helps us figure out the reasons we are here in this world.  I work so that I can find my skills and gifts and then I have the opportunity to refine them.

But…

·     When do we take a break from the work and the noise? 

·     When do we take a moment to recharge our batteries? 

·     When do we spend take time in a beautiful place asking ourselves the deeper questions of what we want from of our lives and what WE truly need to be happy?

 We are the only ones that can answer these questions and we can only find the answers when we are taken out of our day-to-day inertia and obligations.  So many people that I meet are asking big life questions like “what is my purpose?”

When we take time to be in quiet and in beautiful places surrounded by others that are also searching, we can start to remember the best parts of us. The answers are not so much learned, as they are remembered. We all know what was important to us when we were young, but we have forgotten those simpler truer times. 

When we slow down, eat well and sleep well, we begin to remember the best parts of us. We start to reconnect to them and find that we can see a different way of being in the world. We find a different way of meeting those people whom we love, and a different way into the next stages of our lives. These newfound ways are aligned with the things we have always valued. We just need to take some time and reconnect with them.

Joanie Peters and I have created a seven-day retreat to help people who are searching to remember the best of who they are. That beautiful core of “who I am”, that we pass each day on the way out to slay the obligatory dragons. 

Learn more about A PLACE TO NOURISH OUR HEARTS - ENNEAGRAM RETREAT APRIL 1 - 8, 2019. Taking time for yourself is not counter cultural, it is essential to living fullness of life.

Dale Bially – Inspired Enneagram