Many of the frustrations we face in life result from denying, rejecting, and/or ignoring our personal calling. As we do this, we become split off from ourselves and the ONE to which we are a part and belong. Few people pursue, discover, and fulfill a calling because...
“You have to carry the fire.” “I don’t know how to.” “Yes, you do.” “Is the fire real?” “The fire? Yes it is.” “Where is it? I don’t know where it is.” “Yes you do. It’s inside you. It always was there. I can see it.” The Road, Cormac McCarthy The novel The Road by...
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being...
Calling is where the inside drive meets the outside need. “Vocation does not come from a voice out there calling me to be something I am not. It comes from a voice in here calling me to be the person I was born to be.” Thomas Merton The aerodynamics of an airplane...
“Trust that which gives you meaning and accept it as your guide.” C.G. Jung Calling is the path to meaning, purpose, and significance. The iconic 1985 movie The Goonies tells the story of Mickey, Chunk, Data, and Mouth (the Goonies); a group of young misfits who...
It takes time, effort, and attention to develop clarity on your calling. Rarely if ever do the heavens part and a voice bursts forth telling us what to do when. What’s the fun in that anyway? And if it did, would we really listen? Would we even believe or trust it?...
Each of us has been launched into being by the cosmic slingshot of Providence. We are authored by forces outside of us and cast into an amazing ancient story. We are constrained by our limited awareness of the past, present, or future. We did not pick the time and...
My daughter recently had her braces taken off. After two years of nightly headgear and metal on her mouth, she was finally free. Since she had them put on, she would talk about how much she missed her “freedom”. Yes, the freedom of eating sticky candy, whole apples,...
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. – Joseph Campbell How often do our best-laid plans go awry? Once in a lifetime? Twice? Too many to count? We begin each year with resolutions. We turn over...
For the majority of my life, I’ve felt drawn to change. Not the dye-my-hair-every-season type of change, but a voracious hunger for new surroundings, new roles to explore, new relationships to replace old. I moved across the city, the country, the world; I changed...
As an external description, maturity is the evidence of reaching full natural growth or development. As an internal description, maturity is the emotional and relational capability of living fully and loving deeply while experiencing life on life’s terms. By being...
According to recent statistics gathered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), 23.5 million Americans over the age of 12 cast about in daily life addicted to alcohol and/or illegal drugs. That number does not include the millions of...
You and I are created as emotional and spiritual creatures, created to live fully. We find life to the full through emotional and spiritual relationship with ourselves, others, and God. We cannot find full life otherwise. We are predesigned to find fulfillment in...
The ever-present temptation towards apathy or resignation is the reason hope is so daring and risky. Hope awakens us to wonder, dreams, possibilities, courage and belief. These forms of imagining will always be slightly or greatly painful once we actually face that we...
When you or I say to someone, “I feel sad” about some loss, or “I feel lonely” about some disconnection, we are simply laying claim to our own internal emotional experience. The “I feel” statement, followed by our reference point to...
The following is a list of ten qualities that make leaders worth joining and make participants valuable to leaders. These ten simple actions are what leaders and participants do who create vibrant, sustainable, productive environments in which excellence is the norm....
No one naturally seeks to become mediocre, the diminishment of excellence. Anyone who thinks that they seek mediocrity, i.e., the uninspired, indifferent, average, lackluster, or forgettable, is confused as to who they are and how they are made. They are actually...
There are four realities in living life that we cannot overcome. They are fixed factors of living on earth. We may waste our lives attempting to defeat them, instead of living well within the context of them. Experiencing living within their parameters can actually...
When my sons were little, we planted a slim stick of a poplar tree beside our driveway. We must have planted it during the exact sign of the moon in Farmer’s Almanac, or something like that. The poplar grew very fast, from no more than a stick 18 inches tall to four...
As an external description, maturity is the process of reaching full natural growth or development, or something having reached the limit of its time. As an internal description, maturity is the capability of living fully life on life’s terms, emotionally and...
I won’t go into all of the details, but I was working towards a major life decision years ago. I had a deep desire to return to my hometown and work from the place my heart could not stop desiring. I did make the move. Years have passed since we moved from my work in...
Leaders find much fulfillment in serving others. Whether it’s serving as a CEO or a parent, leaders most significant moments come when they are giving their gifts, abilities, passion, and creativity. Even so, leaders who pour out great energy doing what is fulfilling...
A long time friend of mine who is a copyright attorney and agent that has been representing music artists for three decades explained to me years ago “how things really work.” He was kind of giving me the facts of life talk about creativity and the industry. He said,...
The Cost of Gladness A friend of mine told me a story of entering the seventh grade middle school. He’s a grown man, now; flies for FedEx. In fact, he is the captain that does check rides with other pilots to make sure they are topnotch. Basically, he is master of his...
We are powerless over being created to find fulfillment in a certain way. Just like trees are powerless over needing water to grow and thrive, we humans find our “water” in relationship with our own hearts, the hearts of others and God. This inborn quality of...
