When we lose a sense of purpose, daily effort can seem meaningless. If we start feeling that all we are doing is working to feed our bodies and hang on to a life that doesn't seem to be going anywhere anymore, it's easy to see how hopelessness can set in.
This is, perhaps, the very reason The Smallest Thing exists...
Caught in survival, it's impossible to see the point sometimes. If life is just a big grind, then what's the reason to keep grinding?
I don't pretend to have any mystical answers. When things are hard and times seem grim, I've slipped into a funk myself, seeing no point...
One way I sometimes get out of it is to find out what I can still do to make things better.
I try to find one small thing I can do for myself, my family, a friend or the planet. I try to breathe one small good thought.
Maybe that's enough. Maybe it's all I am here to do. And it could be that it's all pointless--so if it is--maybe it's ok that all I can do is send a good thought into the ether somehow.
Maybe it's a post I make to encourage someone. Or just the ability to listen when someone else is having a bad day. Maybe it's being willing to trust a friend and give them the chance to help me.
Maybe none of it makes any sense at all, and we get to make the sense out of it that we do. Maybe our next purpose is waiting for us to put down something we carry now, that no longer serves us.
Maybe.
When desire no longer provides a sign post, maybe we need to look for a different kind of sign post.
It could be that we can make a list of our greatest gifts and find a way to keep those alive for ourselves. Paint for the sake of painting. Sing or dance or play music for the sake of the music. Get lost in the study of a species of caterpillar, for the sake of the caterpillar...and your own mind.Maybe the smallest thing you will do today is redefine the word purpose. Much love.
Still searching for my answer to this question. very relevant for me at this time. Outsiders looking in may assume it is about empty nest syndrome, or post-midlife crisis, or hormonal changes. I think not. My experience is telling me it is about burn-out from survival mode. Too long have I gotten up every day and tried to juggle the complicated chaos that is my life. I am simply TIRED, and looking for meaning in the daily grind of work-pay bills-sleep-repeat. This exhaustion is made all the more sharp when compared to the background of my life, which has been full and rich and varied and wonderful, in spite of challenges. It seems I am running out of steam to transform venom into honey. I don't have answers, just observations. I'd be interested to hear how others are traversing this terrain.
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ReplyDeleteFor some reason, my comment posted twice! Maggie, thanks for your insight, and thanks for enriching my world. You've done that for years, and I hope we get to do that for one another for a long time yet to come.
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