Our Purpose

"Our purpose is that which we most passionately are when we pay attention to our deepest selves." Carol Hegedus

Most humans at one time or another wonder if there is a purpose to them being here.  When we are in the midst of caregiving, the inordinate amount of time swallowed in tasks may preclude our thinking about what we care most passionately about.  We can also get lost in competition.  We can be living our lives joyfully and then notice what someone else is doing, and get caught up in trying to do as well.  People who have had a death experience sometimes explain when they 'return' that their only purpose is to love deeply.  As caregivers, I think we are served well to think about what that might mean.  I don't think it means that we give ourselves to the extent that we damage ourselves --- as our ultimate task is to love ourselves first.  Even in caregiving we can get caught up -- if not in the many tasks -- in comparison and competition.  We might know someone who chooses to do it differently than we do, and we might think we should be doing it that well too.  It is important that each of us remember that no one else can tell us how to do the task of caregiving; we have the ultimate freedom and responsibility of figuring that out ourselves.  What if our purpose is not to get lost in caregiving or comparisons, but to be so alight from within by who we truly are that we affect the world in a positive way?