FOLLOW YOUR CALLING

"THERE IS NO GREATER GIFT YOU CAN GIVE OR RECEIVE THAN TO HONOR YOUR CALLING. IT'S WHY YOU WERE BORN. AND HOW YOU BECOME MOST TRULY ALIVE." -OPRAH WINFREY

There is nothing like finding that one thing you were meant to do and doing it. But how and when do you know what that one thing is? Some people come into this world with knowledge that's clear as a whistle, they know with absolute certainty what they are supposed to do and they start doing it. For most of us, it doesn't come this easily. Looking back for me, it is clear that I had an instinct from a very young age what mine was...

I would sit at my desk in my room facing a window to the street outside and painting for hours. I had a simple watercolor set, brush and water, that was it, but it was my favorite thing to do. I loved it. When I was painting there was such joy and contentedness that filled me. Every once in a while, on a special occasion, my mom would take me and my brother to the toy store and let us pick out one thing, anything we wanted. What would I pick? The hot new un-get-able toy? Nope. There was nothing in that entire store that made me happier, than a fresh, brand-new box of 64 Crayola crayons. That's what I wanted. I can still feel the feeling of popping open the perforated edges, lifting the top, and see all of the untouched, crisp, clean colors inside. Crazy right? I must have known then that this is what I wanted to do...

But knowing and realizing that you know are two different things when it comes to finding your calling. As we get older, our intuition becomes clouded with the opinions, the should do's, the should not do's...we become influenced by the so called "path to life" that is set out before us and dutifully follow "what we are supposed to do next." Pretty soon, that clear voice that was telling us to follow our calling, gets shushed and squashed back into the recesses of our minds. I never actually thought I could do this for a living. I loved it to much. It made me so happy. No, I needed to get a real job. Do something serious. 

There's a voice inside of us that knows what we are supposed to do, we just have to listen. When you look back to being a kid, what was that one thing that you just loved to do? That made you so happy when you were doing it, if you were told you could do anything you want, that's what you would pick? That thing is often the secret to our calling...what's your's?