What am i supposed to do?
Author: Robin Black-Rubenstein
It seems there are too many choices sometimes, especially when we are trying to decide what we are supposed to do with the gift of life that we have been given. Some people seem to know exactly what they want to do in life since the second grade, and have continually headed in that direction. But many of us change the course and some change more often than others. No matter what that looks like in an individual's life, it is all okay as long as we strive to give ourselves fully at the time. It is also helpful to recognize that we are always in the process of sprouting, growing, flowing, declining, fading, and beginning again.
There is a saying from a few decades ago, "bloom where you're planted." I am not sure who actually coined the phrase, but an artist named Mary Englebreit from St. Louis made it popular in her cards, books, magazines, stores, and home décor. She eventually became famous for this. She attributes her artistic desires to getting glasses in the second grade, and being able to see details of the world around her clearly for the first time.
Blooming where you are planted sometimes means that we stop where we are and recall those times when we felt whole and completely absorbed in the feeling of pure beauty that is around us and within us, seeing the world as clearly as possible through the lens that is our soul. I believe that when we are willing to allow this to happen, the fractures of the past that made us doubt our light and our purpose begin to heal and we see ourselves as we are meant to. Thomas Merton the Trappist monk and writer recalls a moment for him that changed his life, “In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers….There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”
In nature or on a busy street corner if you are still and silent you can feel the breeze, you can hear the water trickle and notice the dandelion, or see light shining in people . You can also hear the whisper in your soul that says all is sacred and you help bring light to the world too, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.