Do you know the answers?  Why are you here?  What is your purpose? Do you know your passion?  What do you love to do?  While I have experienced glimmers of some answers to these questions, I am still searching.

Before you read any further I must warn you—I am a lover of figurative language.  I love my metaphors and similes and enjoy dabbling in analytically awesome alliteration.  See what I did there?  So here goes—Life’s a journey, right? You move along the path of life (like in the board game but without the pink and blue pegs) headed for a destination, whether it’s temporary or long-term.  Some people have a very specific plan as to where they are going and have an internal map and detailed itinerary to guide them.  But when they get there, they often realize that they may have missed out on amazing sights and experiences.  Filled with regret they wonder, ‘What was the big rush, anyway?  Should I just head back and visit some places I missed along the way?’

Others live more spontaneously, taking side trips, without any expectations or deadlines for their destination. They don’t use maps and they don’t ask for directions along the way.  But these travelers often spend so much time on their journey that they forget their final destination and having grown weary from their travels, wake up one day feeling lost and uncertain of the future.  Wrestling with fear they ponder, ‘Did I use my time the best I could?  How can I get back on track and make up for lost opportunities?  If I had followed others on the path, would I be more successful and fulfilled now?’

“There is only one map to the journey of life and it lives within your heart.”  -Willie Nelson

If I had to put myself into one of these two categories, I would be in the latter group. My life so far has been filled with beautiful sights and loving people but the road has been littered with much tragedy and loss.  I won’t make excuses.  My path was never a perfect one.  But each time I lost an important person in my life to heart disease, to Alzheimer’s, to cancer, it was like I broke down on the side of the road and needed repair. Luckily, the strong people in my life showed me how to persevere and rise above the difficult times.

Over the last year I have been working hard to get back to the place I need to be and the first step of my journey involves reminding myself of the things that bring me joy, those things that guide me toward a life of purpose, passion, and love.  To get there it was necessary to start this blog because my first joy was writing.

Writing has always been special to me.  It’s always been the one thing I knew I was “meant” to do…the one thing that brought me pure joy and satisfaction. When I was in elementary school, I discovered this joy. I would spend hours happily creating poems and short stories and then eagerly share them with anyone who would listen.  After losing my mother at age 15, writing was my escape and my therapy as all the emotions I held inside could only be released via a pen and journal.

In my early twenties I discovered my second joy-travel and my journal recorded every new site, sound, and feeling that each new place I traveled to would bring.

When my daughter was born in my early thirties, I found my most monumental joy-motherhood.  Being a mother had always been a priority to me and as a ‘motherless mother’ I seized and continue to seize each moment to make new memories with my daughter.

So far each decade has brought me onto the path of a new joy.  Amidst the heartache of each decade, I have discovered friendship, love, and laughter.  The great joy of my forties is still unknown although one could say that my commitment to health and happiness is a strong contender. The chapter is still unfinished and I am hopeful that there are still joys left to be discovered and celebrated.

I love this quote and the author, Richard Bach. The quote can be seen from so many perspectives.  Are we the clouds and the sky is our path to follow?  Or are we the sky filled with the various clouds in our life…stormy, dark clouds of difficulty and loss and fluffy, white clouds of happiness and love?  Either way you see it, Bach wants us to know that the key to our journey can be found, if we only look in the right place past the barriers that block what is most important. I look forward to sharing my search with you and learning about your gifts, purpose, and passion.

Who do you think we are-the clouds or the sky?  Have you discovered your gift yet? 

Peace and love ☺♥