Fridays' Favorite Quote...Purpose and Passion

Finding your real purpose or passion 
is like searching all over the house for your car keys, only to discover that they were in your hand the whole time.

I find, as I get older, that there are more moments where what I am looking for is right on me or right in front of me. It makes my family chuckle when I say, after frantically digging through my purse like a squirrel diving for long-lost nuts, "I'm looking for my glasses." One of my precious grandchildren may comment, ever so sweetly, "Nana, they're on your head"...and then we all have a good laugh.

Right there.
Right in front of me
On my head the whole time.

I met a man named James yesterday at the college where I teach. He's an African American man who is probably in his 
mid to late seventies. He exudes wisdom, although he is far too humble to imagine that his words are so powerful. He told me he was back in school because after working hard his whole life, and retiring from three jobs, he was bored. He said he had learned early in life that what makes you happy and brings passion to your life may be what you do every day. 
But the "take home" was this...you are so busy doing it that you forget to enjoy it. You don't even realize you are doing your passion..the thing that makes your heart sing, that brings you an unending well of joy.

James said he lost his purpose and lost this passion staying home. "You can only catch so many fish, before you'll start to lose your mind," he said with a grin that enchanted everyone, old and young, sitting at our table.

So James said to himself, "Self, go do somethin' about this. Get it back!" He said his passion had been his job, but he didn't appreciate it until it was gone. Now learning and being a college student was his passion. 

But he said he had a confession to make. He just didn't understand us "college folks". He talked about how busy
everyone was here at the college, how we all seemed to rush so fast and do so much. He wondered, with the innocent wondering of a child, if maybe we were missing the point of being alive...

It's possible to be so busy doing life, that we miss really living life.

It's Friday and I have a long "to-do" list. Yet the weather forecast calls for sunny skies and temperatures around 70. Perhaps today I'll set that list aside, if only momentarily. Friday, May 2nd might be better spent with experiencing my passion and purpose.... to love and enjoy this day, and all the people in it,  as if it was my last day on earth. To relish that which is in front of me. No need to search high and low. It's right there in plain sight.

Thanks for the reminder, James!

Have a great and glorious day. Let's all slow down and enjoy with every fiber of our being all the good things that are right in front of us.

God Bless!
Love Linda