Who are you? Who, who, who, who....I really wanna know....

"We cannot speak in the abstract of any one form of life as higher than another....for the best and highest form of life is, for each one, the particular way to which he or she is personally called."            ---Saint Simeon




One of the questions I am asked often when I am having a conversation with someone about living the life I am called to live is: "How does a person know who they are called to be?" The answer is simple and yet the most difficult- you just know. However, there are some things a person can do to reveal the answer to themselves.....for it is each person who must answer the question for themselves. I can't tell you who you are called to be. It is up to you to discern that answer.



Parker Palmer says in his powerful small book, Let Your Life Speak,  
"Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent..... My youthful understanding of "Let your life speak" led me to conjure up the highest values I could imagine and then try to conform my life to them whether they were mine or not....trying to live by an abstract norm will invariably fail- and may even do great damage. Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about- quite apart from what I would like it to be about- or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions. "  




The Bhagavad Gita (chapter 3, verse 35) says:
"It is better to strive in one's own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another. Nothing is ever lost in following one's own dharma, but competition in another's dharma breeds fear and insecurity." ( dharma = right work. The opposite is work that leads only to a paycheck.)




Christian writer Max Lucado has a book called, Cure for the Common Life, in which he leads the reader, step by step, to discover what exciting things the Universe has in store for them. He suggests that your ability unveils your destiny. Lucado encourages people to look back over their lives and note what they have done well on a consistent basis. What have you loved to do? "Relish your moments of success and satisfaction. For in the merger of the two, you find your uniqueness."  Lucado suggests using this method to become more clear about your unique calling- your STORY:
1.  What are your Strengths?   What things come to you easily and lead you to wonder why others can't do them?
2.   What is your Topic? What objects do you enjoy working with? .....people or things?
3.   What are your Optimal conditions? What factors trigger your motivation? ..... need, problems, predicatible routine, surprise, building, maintaining etc.
4.   What about Relationships?  .....in a group, alone, on a small team?
5.   Yes!
When do your Strengths, Topic, Optimal conditions, and Relationship pattern converge in such a fashion that you say, "Yes!"?    When they do, you are living out your STORY.
(from pages 35-38 in Cure for the Common Life by Max Lucado)




May you have fun exploring your unique story as you discern your life's calling. Choose to live your best life by discovering what you love to do, exploring that passion deeply, and then expressing it as the theme of your life. Then you will be living your own dharma.

Peace Be With You