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Daily Question, June 8

Is my life a task or a mission? Or something else entirely?

  • nicole decroix

    my lifes mission is to help other child abuse survivors ,i am a survivor of verbal. Sexual, and physical abuse i feel lead to help others healing from the same things

  • Julie

    I have spent the last year surrendering to something that seems to be signaling me from deep within myself. There is something emerging within that feels sacred. This is uncharted territory for me and can provoke fear and a sense of instability. What I am clear about is that my sense of being is much more essential than any accomplishment, material thing, or title that I have enjoyed in the past. My focus is to be present for whatever I am birthing, be grateful for this life of mystery, and ...

    I have spent the last year surrendering to something that seems to be signaling me from deep within myself. There is something emerging within that feels sacred. This is uncharted territory for me and can provoke fear and a sense of instability. What I am clear about is that my sense of being is much more essential than any accomplishment, material thing, or title that I have enjoyed in the past. My focus is to be present for whatever I am birthing, be grateful for this life of mystery, and stay dedicated to my daily practices.

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  • Palm

    I was baffled by this question, so thank you for all the beautiful reflections

  • Anna

    Thinking of a task or a mission reminds me my past. I grow up believing that to do is important, also as an answer to a call.
    Now I agree with Kevin, life is a gift, or maybe it is even a mission, but meaning that I am answering to Love, and that my life is like a river flowing, gently cherishing the shores, trusting the mysterious path ahead.

  • Kelly

    I view my life first and foremost as an adventure. To paraphrase an author I admire, 'an adventure through the jungles of time and space.'
    Within this adventure, I think there are tasks, missions, exercises in futility, lessons, comedies, dramas, wins, losses, AHA! moments; ametuer moves....and on and on it goes, until my soul knows it has completed this journey, and may rest awhile in bliss til another adventurous dream is hatched.
    Another way I've come to understand-or at least view- my li...

    I view my life first and foremost as an adventure. To paraphrase an author I admire, ‘an adventure through the jungles of time and space.’
    Within this adventure, I think there are tasks, missions, exercises in futility, lessons, comedies, dramas, wins, losses, AHA! moments; ametuer moves….and on and on it goes, until my soul knows it has completed this journey, and may rest awhile in bliss til another adventurous dream is hatched.
    Another way I’ve come to understand-or at least view- my life is that I am (we are) the product of God’s desire to experience love manifest. So; I am (we are) God’s adventure, inasmuch as I am ( we are)pieces of God.

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    • Kelly

      Is it wrong to reply beneath my own answer? ‘ll, so be it…. I just wanted to comment that I loved this question and reading everyone’s answers. I once read that our world is in the shape it’s in because the world is full of sleep walkers. But in this wonderful space I am encouraged and uplifted to discover so many are truly AWAKE.

  • golden shilling

    My life is a mission impossible to hold onto yet when surrendered to holds everything with love.

  • kathleen

    I’m not sure what my life is. I think it is a journey to reveal and express the divine within me.

  • KC

    On a good day I see my life as a mystery, a dance, a river or a lovely big canvas to engage with and paint on / with.

  • sparrow

    perhaps both
    and neither . . .
    I believe I am here to enjoy the mystery that Life is,
    but also to learn and to grow,
    hone and strengthen my spirit,
    and to get glimpses of a Greater Consciousness,
    of which I am a part . . .
    I wonder if I’ll miss this beautiful earth
    when I am gone . . .

  • Kevin

    My life is neither a task nor a mission. My life is a gift and an opportunity to share.

  • Aine

    I always thought my life was supposed to be lived as a mission. Now I think it might be more mystery than mission! When I have lived as a mission, I have often been driven to the next and the next, to logistics and planning and the illusion of control. It wound up exhausting me.

    When all that was taken away for a time, I began to see more mystery. It's not living without purpose; far from it. Rather, it is living with the consciousness that I am in control of very little, and that, really, th...

    I always thought my life was supposed to be lived as a mission. Now I think it might be more mystery than mission! When I have lived as a mission, I have often been driven to the next and the next, to logistics and planning and the illusion of control. It wound up exhausting me.

    When all that was taken away for a time, I began to see more mystery. It’s not living without purpose; far from it. Rather, it is living with the consciousness that I am in control of very little, and that, really, that’s how it is supposed to be.

    I feel calmer and more in the flow of things when I handle only what is on my plate instead of trying to make everything fit the way I think it is supposed to fit. And when I am calmer, I make better decisions, more loving choices, and have more to give myself, those around me, and even God.

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  • Pilgrim

    My life may be best lived if it is first of all a mission – ie, I know why I’m choosing or taking any steps along the way. (At this point, I am lost as to what this is. There are daily tasks (laundry, banking, etc.), that are the sort of stuff of life. Steps toward the mission may also be on some to do list/agenda or greater plan. Best case scenario, I know my mission at any given point – the why and perhaps the joy or fulfillment.

    • Aine

      I'm in a place of emerging, too, Pilgrim, where who I was, and even who I thought I was, is now a closed door, but the open door is not yet fully open. It can be a confusing and often tiring place to be. Yet I can see that where I am now is a preparation for where I will be another day. As one of the brothers at SSJE said, "We need today to prepare for tomorrow."

      Transitions are always challenging, I think, in some way, especially big ones such as we are both going through. We probably don't...

      I’m in a place of emerging, too, Pilgrim, where who I was, and even who I thought I was, is now a closed door, but the open door is not yet fully open. It can be a confusing and often tiring place to be. Yet I can see that where I am now is a preparation for where I will be another day. As one of the brothers at SSJE said, “We need today to prepare for tomorrow.”

      Transitions are always challenging, I think, in some way, especially big ones such as we are both going through. We probably don’t give ourselves enough grace over that simple fact.

      I am in the midst of learning to be how I am, where I am, and to be okay with that. Some moments I do better, some I do worse. Many times I struggle with the feeling that I am “supposed to” be doing more and doing it faster and with more energy. (Ha!) At the core for me, I fear, is thinking I need to Do in order to be loved, which is completely backwards. In reality, we need to be loved in order to Do effectively.

      Ah, well, we are all, every one of us, a work in progress! 😀

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      • Pilgrim

        Exactly, Aine. I think that the Universe will know when we are ready, maybe healed enough in certain areas, and open (or opening) at whatever pace to whatever is to come. This is sometimes frustrating, with its lack of clarity, but inviting and a tiny bit exciting in a way. We are enough, as is. This is somewhat why I keep the name of Pilgrim. Not knowing what is around the bend keeps me on the path opening ahead. I trip and fall. I get up, accept the help and welcome the companionship along the...

        Exactly, Aine. I think that the Universe will know when we are ready, maybe healed enough in certain areas, and open (or opening) at whatever pace to whatever is to come. This is sometimes frustrating, with its lack of clarity, but inviting and a tiny bit exciting in a way. We are enough, as is. This is somewhat why I keep the name of Pilgrim. Not knowing what is around the bend keeps me on the path opening ahead. I trip and fall. I get up, accept the help and welcome the companionship along the journey, and keep going. And on days when I am just too tired, I stay and restore and wait. And then keep going.

        Read More
        • Maya

          Your words really touch me. And the “do to be loved instead of loved to do” part went straight to my core, provoking a “yes, I recognize that!” and a few relieving tears. Being in a big transition myself, I find shelter in being with you together. Thank you for the joint pilgrimage and journey.

          • Julie

            YES! Thank you Pilgrim, Aine, and Maya for your words. Being in this in-between space can feel lonely. It is comforting and helpful to hear others so beautifully articulate my experience. Perhaps in the future I will look back and realize “oh this is where I was being taken” but fo now, there is no road map. I am grateful to you for the nourishment your words have given me.

  • Deb

    Both. And.
    Life just IS.

    • Gina

      Both a mission and a task which opens up to so much possibility and opportunity for life as I know it , really is a mystery that continues in some form forever and always………..

  • Renee

    I often approach my life as a series of tasks—a “to do list”, but this approach does not encourage savoring life. It is more of an “exercising on the treadmill” approach to life. My life is first of all a gift—to be cherished. And I want to live my life as a grateful response to the Giver of this gift—God…the Divine…Mystery…the Universe…the Sacred? However this Presence is experienced or named, It calls me forth as a co-creator. So, there is a calling in my life…and a...

    I often approach my life as a series of tasks—a “to do list”, but this approach does not encourage savoring life. It is more of an “exercising on the treadmill” approach to life. My life is first of all a gift—to be cherished. And I want to live my life as a grateful response to the Giver of this gift—God…the Divine…Mystery…the Universe…the Sacred? However this Presence is experienced or named, It calls me forth as a co-creator. So, there is a calling in my life…and a desire to answer the call. A call to appreciate and create Beauty. A call to respond to suffering with compassion and involvement. A call to be awake and aware and to ADD LIFE!

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  • grateful sea

    Something else entirely. My life is a song that I make up as I go along. Sometimes it is so low and slow that I can’t hear myself singing it and neither can anyone else. But then a river, a tree, or a whale in the sea will sing it back to me.

  • Michael

    I’ve been meditating/thinking on a presentation to teachers called “vocation or profession?”. the every day journey is full of tasks that fulfill the mission/vocation. spreading connectedness…spreading gratefulness…spreading love and peace, etc… is our mission. this vocation requires tasks be undertaken including the task of putting positive and grateful energy out into the world.

  • Christina

    I guess it’s mostly a task. Most of all it’s “under construction.” 🙂

  • Ose

    For sure I would agree with Ed, it is both. Thich Nhat Hanh stated, that “we are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness”, which is both our task and mission, so to say. And if we can add something to help each other to experience and add to this task and mission, I feel we are helping each other to be leading a happy, peaceful, all-enclosing life, with deep gratitude and full of joy. This would be just fulfilling our life´s destination, coming back home.

  • Ed Schulte

    Is my life a task or a mission? Or something else entirely?
    Most definitely BOTH !!

    Firstly It is “something else entirely” because “LIFE is incomprehensible Beingness”. ( fuller description below)

    And it is “task or a mission” ( the differentiation between task and mission is one of attitude and "Gratitude" is the 99% of attitude which makes every life decision a "mission" rather then a "task" ) because the Present Day personality is here, experiencing Life as “Beingness” in ...

    Is my life a task or a mission? Or something else entirely?
    Most definitely BOTH !!

    Firstly It is “something else entirely” because “LIFE is incomprehensible Beingness”. ( fuller description below)

    And it is “task or a mission” ( the differentiation between task and mission is one of attitude and “Gratitude” is the 99% of attitude which makes every life decision a “mission” rather then a “task” ) because the Present Day personality is here, experiencing Life as “Beingness” in a mortal form(s) ( Physical, Psychical, Noetical) simply to receive lessons. Lessons so that the Permanent Personality ( which is within and part of the Soul) will know and be able to utilizes its Infinite Self-hood to greater degrees of perfection within the Eternal Now.

    A quote…for a more detailed explanation.

    “If someone asked, “What is LIFE?” everyone would immediately say, “I know what LIFE is.” But, do you really know what LIFE is? If you know what LIFE is then you know what God is! So I ask again “What is LIFE?” And the answer is: LIFE is incomprehensible Beingness. It is and exists. Being and existing are two different states. “Being” is eternal, without a beginning and without an end, in the Eternal Now. In eternity it is always “now.” We must come to an understanding of the Eternal Now.”

    quote continued here….
    http://www.researchersoftruth.org/What%20is%20Life

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