Faced a dilemma last week: I had so many things that I wanted to do, that I was stuck in a funk of not knowing where to start. This usually happens when the clutter in a particular room is out of control, or I'm moving again and have to pack up my life, or other equally truly mind-boggling situations. This was more of a kid-in-a-candy-store type of dilemma, but I was stuck nonetheless. What to do? Call my best friend Sherry and explain my problem. Her solution? Do SOMETHING! Didn't really matter which thing (although she did suggest which one I might want to start with, too), just GET MOVING! Good advice, that!
I remember back in my church-going days I had to teach the teenage girls about finding their purpose in life (which I still haven't figured out for myself!), and part of the lesson was to just move down a path, and you would find out fairly quickly if it was the right one or the wrong one for you - "Don't expect the Lord to direct your path if you're not willing to move your feet". (No, I don't know who said it - I remember the what, but not the who.) I guess I have a path or two more to wander down, since I still haven't found anything that fits in the long term. (Did I mention my short attention span?)
Paula Poundstone (one of my all-time favorite comediennes) was quizzing one of her audience members about her plans after college. The young girl had no clue what she wanted to do with her education. Paula then asked the entire audience how many people were doing what they really wanted to do. Not many hands went up. She quipped, "You know how grown-ups are always asking kids what they want to be when they grow up? They're looking for IDEAS!" Probably some truth to that...
I'm not really going anywhere with all of this, I guess - just throwing it out there for you to mull over along with me. I heard somewhere that you should try to make a career out of whatever it is you do that, when you are doing it, you are absorbed and happy enough not to notice the passing of time. What does that for you? Could you make it a lifelong pursuit?
Phrases like "Follow your bliss" and "Listen to your muse" and similar set my imagination going and fill me with a certain feeling that I would love to maintain all the time. Unfortunately, the daily-ness of life intrudes and I get sidetracked. Also, I still have the ongoing dilemma of too many options. What absorbs me today may make me yawn tomorrow.
Maybe the truest thing for me - maybe for you, too - is to listen ALL THE TIME, and if the muse (or spirit or inner knowing or whatever label you care to place on it) calls for a change in direction, even in midstream, then so be it!
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