The beautiful paradox of Purpose pursued.
The inevitable and essential heartbreak we encounter in our dedication to Service.
This reflection percolated up through my body this week. I have been feeling as if Life has been carving me, roughly perhaps even, back down to my heartwood, exposing the weathered grain of my self:
If your journey doesn’t break you along the way, there is a high chance you are going the wrong way, or so often you aren’t actually going anywhere at all.
If your work doesn’t feel like a kind of coming home, you should know, there is something out there waiting for you. And there is something inside you that wants to live in the world. It does not have to be how you make your money, it might be an art or an instrument. It could be a way we agree to belong to the great secret of life, a way we agree to listen to the voice of a place, or the way we decide to show up for someone.
If you are on a true path to meet your life’s Purpose, your Work will both break your heart and welcome you home.
You must have the sense and the courage to truly face both.
It does not have to be recognisable to anyone else actually, but if we find it, and we chase it, and we give our heart to it, those who know, will see the light shining through us.
We all have halos, and when we shine, they shine. Anything that does not light you up is too small to invest all your time, energy and attention. That goes for work, relationships, identities and beliefs.
Any time spent wondering what this might be, asking the impossible question, even if the answer eludes you, is still not time wasted.
“Be ashamed to die until you have won some small victory for humanity.” Horace Mann
Sometimes I still wonder how I am supposed to bring my gift and magic to the world. Finding the magic is half the battle. Finding the way to let it live in the world can be just as difficult, and it can break us in totally different ways. I am starting to suspect this is essential and completely necessary.
Artist credit: Justin Estcourt
The important thing, is that we wonder.
Excerpt from STOPPING THE PILGRIM
No need to bring anything with you;
Your wounds and your dearest cares
are all the map and stars you shall ever need
to chart your course,
and the shape love makes
when you hold it in your heart,
the only compass.
Lo! The Great Journey
will entrust to you new tools,
new duties , new Language,
and teach you
how to mend the nets, and how to rig the sails,
of the ones you already have.
© Rocco Jarman, February 2022
This is an excerpt from a longer piece titled Stopping the Pilgrim, the finishing lines of which are:
“And so, the journey of my life turned thus, from an arduous wandering in exile, into a sacred pilgrimage of daring adventure, heading all ways - Home.”
Until next time,
Rocco.