We’re not just going to give half measures to our parenting efforts are we? We’re not only going to discover ourselves in cubicle life, monotonously grinding out 8 hour days for someone else company are we? For someone else who discovered more of a purpose? We’re not going to have ideas and desires…and then sit and wait and wish and wonder about them. We’re definitely not going to lose sight of our health, an element that is fundamental to our functioning…are we? Are we going to mosey on through life, taking the circumstances as they come, watching our life happen to us?
No. No we’re not going to accept that. We know that our efforts and engagements make a difference. We know that being mindful about our abilities and passions is so crucial to our development. We know that creating paths on the back of that self awareness will lead us to great discoveries of purpose and meaning. This isn’t a deep and foggy and complex structure that individuals only find through higher order thinking and application. This is ground level, dirt under the nails, blue collar ‘meaning of life’ stuff. It’s scratching and clawing…it’s gritty and grimy….experiential over theoretical.
Look, it’s way more reasonable that instead of thinking through the ‘meaning of life’ with graduate level science and philosophy, that you create true purpose with your here and now actions…through your motor skills. I’m not opposed at all to searching for intellectual truths through studying the works of others. I certainly do a lot of reading myself. But before doing that, we can take a more direct route to a life of purpose. And it’s not going to be easy. A life of purpose isn’t one that’s more simple. It’s practicing self-awareness and considering your weaknesses. It means taking on more responsibility, and working harder. It entails ‘follow-through’. And it means that you willingly take on more adversity in your life. I’m reminded of a song lyric by the Milk Carton Kids here. In their ‘Ash and Clay’ song, they sing:
‘I know we want what’s best for us – I know it has to come at a price.’
Creating a purposeful life seems to call for sacrifice. You’re giving up what would be easy for you right now… to make life meaningful for you and/or others now, or in the future. It’s easy to see why someone sitting home avoiding challenge and responsibility, would feel, ‘what’s the purpose to all of this? There doesn’t seem to be much meaning.’ It’s also easy to see how they might just be unaware of what they could be doing. We can’t necessarily blame that person…unless they knowingly avoid doing the right thing…and then complain about their situation. That’s just a losing mentality. But it may be, that this individual fell into a funk. That happens to me all the time. And it’s amazing what a little encouragement, or a blessing, or a card, a hug…a small piece of motivation…it’s amazing what that can do for an individual in that funk. And to think…what kind of purpose it would create for a person to take the initiative with that encouragement…and deliver it.
jimmythorpe.com 