RE: What If Your "Calling" Is More Than One Thing?
This is entirely me, has been for as long as I can remember, and is/was a common theme with many among my family and closest friends.
My Steemit profile description gives a good indication, but there is so much more, and what it basically comes down to is a lifelong refusal to fit into the nice neat box into which others (including a couple of former spouses) would choose to restrict me. Thanks, but no thanks.
My sister Carol once noted that our family was filled with late-bloomers, but while that is true on one level, more correctly we are simply people with many widely varied interests, who choose to pursue those interests to a greater degree than most.
And the irony is that it was often these same people who most fervently tried to get me to focus on one thing to the exclusion of everything else, regardless of what I wanted, and what to me made my life worth living.
My mom used to say she knew a little bit about a lot of things, and that is true of me as well, so I can at least converse intelligently on most subjects.
But there are also several areas in which I've amassed a great deal of knowledge over the years, and it has been more and more clear to me in recent years that I am here in large part to pass on that knowledge, as I wrote about in my Day 99 - Daily Haiku.
I am finally owning my role as a wise woman elder, which would never have been possible without the long, varied and often circuitous route I've taken throughout my life.
With writing as one of my lifelong passions, I am able to delve deeply into different areas and mine out the gems, or at least do my best in that regard. It seems to be the most fulfilling way that I've found thus far to bring it all together.
Awesome comment. And sorry for the late response--I was traveling AND getting sick. Not a great combo.
I love this line:
It is always really difficult to see in the middle of it how something that others call less efficient or the wrong path can actually end up being exactly what we needed. Hearing stories like yours are encouraging though. Thank you for sharing. And I'm sorry to hear that you have had to deal with pressure and resistance from those around you. Even if (and that's a big IF sometimes) they are coming from a place of love, it is rarely helpful to direct people like that.
Cheers to you for sticking with it!
Thanks, @ssimkins9!
Nice to know there are others out there making the same sorts of choices, which I've always known, but it's still nice to have confirmation.
I've been enjoying your posts for the same reason - you've clearly allowed yourself to learn the lessons that have presented themselves along the way, as opposed to so many who choose to ignore them, even when they are screaming in their ears. And, learning the lessons is no small task, as you well know.
Hope that you are feeling awesome by now. Traveling while sick seriously sucks, which my husband has also been doing of late, so here's hoping that you are both completely healed and healthy and happy!
Whenever we decide to break away from the main flow of people, it can feel very lonely. That beautiful thing about the internet is that we can discover that there is an entire subculture and network of people who are also doing the same. They may be spread all over the world, but it helps to be able to connect with people choosing the unconventional.
And we are all healed up and healthy! And happy. Thanks for asking.
(for whatever reason, this comment did not post when I originally wrote it days ago).
Indeed, choosing the unconventional can leave us feeling like outcasts, until we manage to link up with others making similar choices. And I agree, the Internet has made it far easier to find those with whom we have much in common, far more so than has ever been possible before.
Funny, I've have several comments that have failed to post recently as well, and one that disappeared after it initially showed up briefly. Very odd.
Glad to know you are well again. Be blessed. ;-)