Dear Everyone,
What is your purpose in life?
What gives your life meaning?
These are two questions that I’ve spent quite a bit of time pondering.
I’ve noticed that a few of the charities I support began as the result of personal tragedy. Alex’s Lemonade Stand and the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation were started after the loss of a child. Jen’s Thank You Alliance was founded after the loss of a wife. In all three cases, families and individuals found purpose and meaning in trying to help others.
I’m sure everyone will agree that no amount of good works can erase the pain of loss. But I have profound respect for those who honour their loved ones by striving to do good and to help others who are suffering similarly.
As we begin the second month of 2012, I ask you to consider what your purpose is. I ask you to consider what gives your life meaning. Please feel free to share those reflections below.
One of my purposes is to share the message that forgiveness and love provide hope and peace to those who desperately need it. And we all need it. I’ve been able to find a venue for that message in my novels.
All the best and thanks for reading,
SR
PS. Thank you to everyone who has contacted me about the sequel to Gabriel’s Inferno. I’m happy to report that the sequel will be released before the summer. I’ll be posting a teaser on 12 February. Thank you for your support and encouragement. It’s much appreciated.
I am honoured to have had all three of my novels appear on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists. I was a Semifinalist for Best Author in the 2011 and 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards. {
Since I am in the midst of deeply disturbing french poetry and contrasting it with a rock song for the professor I felt this was a question that had been lingering in my mind of late.
I have often felt I had no purpose and still I am not sure what it is. Whenever I have felt passionate about something I am usually proven wrong and it all leads me to believe that my purpose is to show perseverance. To be an example to others, that even though I don’t feel strong, I must be. I have had people in my life more than once tell me how strong I am and how they don’t know how I am doing it, going on with so much pain and suffering.
I always look at them surprised by this notion that I am a pillar of strength. Sometimes being strong is showing strength even when you don’t feel it inside. We all go through trials and some of us more than others. If we were to base that strength on the number of storms that occur in our lives and their frequency I know that my life would rate up their with catastrophic. Yet, I don’t honestly look at my life as a catastrophy, I tend to have a young mind and I don’t often think like an adult does, which maybe helps me to keep that child like quality of awe, that never ending innate belief that no matter how many times I am knocked down there is still hope-somewhere deep inside and I refuse to give up on that.
The meaning in my life is that despite losing a child, despite being harassed and bullied. Despite being put down and put aside, despite my tears, I still wake up every day believing that “today” will be different.
Thank you for being a pillar I can view with never ending awe SR. Congratulations on the up coming sequel. Your book is my reward for enduring and well, I can’t say all I want to here but thanks for being here.
The sequel’s coming out before this summer? All RIGHT!
I find a lot of purpose in connecting to others and trying to help others. I enjoy the deeper meanings in your novel.
Is it not purpose enough to be alive in the day and care for those around us? “Not through works so no man can boast…” Read that somewhere *laughing*.
I love charity and have been passionately involved in many but I don’t think our worth lies there. We as human beings find our purpose in our rising and our going down.
I often think, as people, we can be so hard and critical of ourselves. We do look to “works” of others to measure against ourselves. I have lost people but never created art or started a charity.
In our grief and remembering we honour those we have loved and lost… “NOT through works so no man can boast.” We take care of each other because we are driven to. We love because we are moved to.
I think our purpose as people is to Do Our Best each day. Whether that means taking care of our bodies and minds, lending a helping hand, saying a kind word, turning a cheek, being real. These are the things that matter.
Our Value…. isn’t that an interesting thing?
Why do WE feel we NEED to find OUR VALUE?
WE ARE OF VALUE. WE ARE VALUABLE.
Even, and sometimes especially, in our weaknesses. It is our fragility and humanness and NOT our striving that can change another’s life for good.
When we are broken we don’t go to the “perfect” man to give us comfort… at least I don’t. We seek out our imperfect friends and family. Why? Simply because they are there and they care.
I believe we all have worth and purpose… our worth is in our connections to others and our purpose to just be connected and available in life.
That’s all. It’s just that simple.
I may not be the most intellegent of folk but I Do Know This. There is not one of us without a dstinct and profound value. It is good to strive and do good. The hunger for betterment and learning is great thing – it’s just not everything.
Even if we can’t see it, we are of great value. Irreplacable and imperfect.
These are my thoughts. I thank you all for yours. Wish you all, All the best.
squally <3
Um… and after that rambling I forgot to say – ” Dear SR, I am so glad there will be a sequel and we will get the oportunity to read your words, once again, and hopefully soon. Very much looking forward to the sneak peak on the 12th. Sincerely, squally.”
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I believe my purpose is my son. In one way because of his autism, he is dependent on me and will be for all my life. In another way he has brought me a wider purpose. I never planned to have children, I don’t possess what I would call, a natural mothering instinct. Through him and his needs I’ve have had to learn a great deal of patience and knowledge I otherwise wouldn’t have sought out. Because of that, I’ve found an inner strength and I’ve been able to help others dealing with the same difficulties who came after me. That gives me a great deal of comfort. I know I’ve made a mark, however tiny on others’ lives.
I believe my purpose is to inspire others…
🙂
Thanks for this post, SR.
I believe that everyone of us is unique, irreplaceable and of great worth. I believe everyone has a purpose in this life, even though, most of the times, it may be difficult to understand what exactly this purpose is. I confess it’s not an easy question to answer, but I think that wherever there’s hope, there’s the possibility for us to grasp the meaning of our life.
As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have a specific answer to that, cause I’m still in the “finding out” phase, but I try to do my best to stand by the people that are in my life and the ones that I meet on my path, to let them know I’ll be there if they need me, that they are not alone and that they’re unique in their own way. One of the moments that make me feel whole is when I’m able to make other people smile, to give them hope, to let them forget even for a brief moment their hardship and just give them a bit of joy. I’m involved in volunteering and every time I see people that are suffering reach a bit of hope and joy, my heart swells, because I feel like I’ve relieved some of their pain.
Who knows what life will bring. What I know is that I’ll always try to help others not give up life, their dreams, and help them see that life is beautiful, despite the hardship we go through. Maybe, this is my purpose, after all.
Elena
PS: Can’t wait for the sequel and the teaser!
I believe my purpose has been to hold my family (mother, father, sister) together, and to bring some light into my parent’s difficult lives. However this is starting to feel….binding, and is a heavy roll to fulfill. I love my family, and will always be there for them but, sometimes I think I need to put myself first for a little while, and find a purpose for me.
Sounds terrible when it’s out in print. Oh well…
The wise man doesn’t give the right answers,
But poses the right questions.
A longtime friend of mine called me several weeks ago to see how I was coping with my husband’s deteriorating health. At one point in the conversation, she asked whether I remembered what I had written down on a piece of paper to her 25 years ago about her distress dealing with both her alcoholic parents. I didn’t have a clue. She told me she had carried the paper in her wallet all these years and it had helped her tremendously. I was dumbstruck. Didn’t remember it at all.
I think that if we, with a sincere mind, truly are trying to express the heart of God here on earth, we ripple over each other with our actions without even knowing the impact most of the time. It really is not us, but God. I thanked someone for helping me with my son through his book some time ago. Again, he bashfully didn’t have a clue that he had helped, nor what to say back to me. That’s the way it should be, I think. People come into our lives, sometimes for a season only, sometimes permanently, but always for a reason. Don’t dismiss it. We steady the boat for each other. We are each others’ heart of God bringing the hope and peace that we all need. Miss Pat
Living in the world that we do, in the frame of time we are living, I as a 19, almost 20 year old young woman, find my purpose in being the difference. In not falling for the stereotype that society has created for our generation. I love my family, they are everything to me, so I go to college and study and work to be the best that I can be, so that I’ll make them and myself proud of whom I’ve grown to be. I find my purpose in being able to be young, and carefree, and have fun, without being irresponsible, or immature and finding a balance between “work” and “play”.
I find my purpose knowing that I am not the same I was a year ago, because I’ve learned something new each day, and evolved.
And I know that once time start passing, my purpose will probably change, when I become a mother, or a wife, I’ll have a new meaning to my life, and I honestly can’t wait.
Thank you SR, as I told you in twitter, your words inspire me. They make me question myself and think a little deeper.
Love, LisbethTejada
I’m loving reading everyones thoughts. Miss
Pat, that was quite profound. I read a book once by a Christian minister called Max Lucado, no idea what the title was. My friend has amassed quite a collection of the man’s work. I found his writing to be quite humble.
Anyway, he spoke about trying to get his “good works” done and how he struggled because things would happen in his day. He daughter would want a cuddle or show him a picture, as a good father he would stop what he was doing and dote on her. He would get a phone call from a friend with an issue or have to make a house or hospital call due to an emergeny. Always disrupting his “good work” and the purpose he needed to fullfill.
He spent sometime, exhausted, in bed, talking to God and feeling the burden of not achieving what he felt he must… until, God showed him his purpose. His purpose in THAT day, for these are the only ones we have. He had cared for the sick and grieving. He’d showed his daughter a fathers heart. He’d been there for a friend even in the small things.
He’d lived a day with a lot of purpose. I think sometimes we can be blind the meaning of a moment as we strive to achieve. I know today you’ll walk in your purpose. It’s ok even if we stumble. We learn whether we be walking upright or crawling and stumbling on the ground.
Don’t be hard on yourself whether your young or old. We all find our way in life. Our “Purpose” has a way of finding us. Just be available.
All Best,
squalls.