If you ask any parent what they wish for their child to experience in their life, most would answer something to the effect that they want their child to be happy, to be fulfilled and have a sense of purpose in their life. And yet what a child is taught are things such as: Do what you’re told. Go to school and get good grades. Please other people. Pay your bills. Don’t go to jail. Make as much money as you can. Dress well and have nice toys. All these rules create well “domesticated” people, but do not teach someone how to live their life purpose.
The fact of the matter is if we are living our lives focused on these rules, we are chasing something outside our own personal self. Doing what we’re “supposed” to do by society’s measure will only create internal anxiety, for enough is never enough. Inner peace and purpose can only be found by following our own internal guidance as Henry David Thoreau so eloquently noted: “If one advances confidently in the direction of their dream, and endeavors to live the life they are imagining, one passes an invisible boundary. All sorts of things begin to occur that never otherwise would have occurred. One meets with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Taking Thoreau’s advice, one must initially have dreams and imagination – things not commonly taught and supported by society. The song, “My Way”, written by Paul Anka and sung by Frank Sinatra comes to mind here. Each of us is an individualized expression of the one Power and Presence giving life to all. No two snow flakes are the same and no two fingerprints are identical. The Master Planner created us all to be unique. It would behoove us all to learn to follow our own internal guidance earlier than later in life. So, have dreams and goals but remain open to how these can come about for providence will step up in unexpected ways.
Say with me: “I go within to check in with my higher Self for guidance and direction. I follow my bliss and know as I give from my wholeness within, I create a life of love, joy and peace and for this I am ever so grateful.”
— Rev. Gay Beauregard, Alpine Church of Spiritual Living
