“Spirituality involves an awareness of a sacred connection to all creation, and a choice to embrace that connection with love”
Mimi Doe, Concord, MA
As a teenager, I felt that I had a strong sense of spirituality. I have no idea where this came from but had a sense of my purpose. At some point in my high school years, I began to believe that my purpose in life was to help people to help themselves. Maybe this came from my desire to be a teacher. Before graduating high school however, I changed my major to nursing, as suggested by one of my favorite teachers.
Mrs Richardson knew that I loved science and tended to have strengths in this subject. Even though I had no idea what nurses did, I followed her advice and changed my major because I valued her as someone with immense wisdom. I became a nurse, and it took about seven years to figure out what area I wanted to specialize in. I found that I loved working with my patients with cancer and so I specialized in Oncology Nursing. I began with a strong sense of wanting to help my patients with their various health challenges. While I do feel that I gave a lot in service to my patients, the truth is that many of my patients also taught me so many valuable lessons about life. First and foremost, that each day that we are alive and can wake up each morning with the ability to see, to hear, to get out of bed and walk, to feel the sun or the rain on our face, to love and to hug, to experience the lessons life has to offer in good health with our family and friends is a gift. None of us knows how long we have in this life. It can sometimes surprise us. It may be short or long but one thing that I know for sure, we all come here with a purpose. We all come here to learn lessons. We choose what lessons we want to learn and as Mimi Doe said above, “to embrace that connection (to all in this life) with love”. After all these years, my purpose is more crystal clear and refined. After all these years, I am most grateful for Mrs Richardson’s advice. I feel that I am living from my soul purpose.
This is, without question, a most challenging time for many of us. We are still recovering from the pandemic, while our world seems to be transforming into a new way of being. There is an immense amount of energy in our world, in many forms and yet I do believe that we are all contributing collectively to this transforming energy. On one hand it is exciting to see the significant progress we are making in developing technologies that are making our lives easier whether with the ability to connect with our loved ones through cellphone communication, to learn a new subject on our computers from the comfort of our own homes, be able to become pregnant and birth a child through In Vitro Fertilization or as two Nobel Prize winners were honored this week for their discovery of the role of microRNA in gene regulation. Two amazing scientists, Gary Ruvkun of MGH and Viktor Ambros of the University of Massachusetts/ Worcester, who used their gifts to uncover the intricacies of our bodies in health and illness which will be of benefit to many!
So, despite the overwhelming conflicts we hear about every day in the world, there are still many good people within our family circle, in our communities, in our country and throughout the world, working hard every day in service to the good, including yourself. And I do believe that we all have a sacred purpose in this life.
So, I ask you, what do you see as your life purpose or soul purpose? What is your passion and what is it that lights you up each day that you enjoy? Whatever that may be is your first clue to your life purpose. I hope that over this holiday season you may spend some time reflecting on what that is because you too have a special purpose in this life. This world needs all of us to shine our light and our positive energy in the world. As my mentor, Mary Morrissey said, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience”. I used to think of myself as a human being having a spiritual experience, I now realize that we are all spiritual beings having a human experience! Remarkable! My wish for you this holiday season is that you have a Fun, Safe and Memorable holiday having a Joyful human experience!