Feb. 14, 2004
Guides: [Name of friend] is labouring under the delusion that a life mission or calling, because it is so important, must be grim and an ordeal. The word “mission” has these associations... military mission, missionaries saving souls, etc. “Life work” also: many people, including her, think that work must be drudgery: dreary and joyless. Because of that she’s not taking her joy as a clue to what her mission is. How can it possibly be something so good? How could she deserve that? And yet many people make a life and living out of doing what they love to do... if they deserve it, why not her? (And why not you, Karen?)
Guides: (Anticipating her argument, ‘But how can I translate what I love doing into dollars? What are the practical methods? E.g., what can you do with a degree in classics?’) When your head is in the right place about this, the answer to those questions will come to you. You can’t see them now because you aren’t ready. Go one step at a time, because you are so steeped in ‘I don’t deserve this goodness’ that you can only handle so much at once. So just take it easily... one course, one contact, one possibility, at a time. The way will open up before you as you grow in your ability to handle seeing it. And keep up your healing work—these two things go together.
Guides: [Name of friend] is labouring under the delusion that a life mission or calling, because it is so important, must be grim and an ordeal. The word “mission” has these associations... military mission, missionaries saving souls, etc. “Life work” also: many people, including her, think that work must be drudgery: dreary and joyless. Because of that she’s not taking her joy as a clue to what her mission is. How can it possibly be something so good? How could she deserve that? And yet many people make a life and living out of doing what they love to do... if they deserve it, why not her? (And why not you, Karen?)
Guides: (Anticipating her argument, ‘But how can I translate what I love doing into dollars? What are the practical methods? E.g., what can you do with a degree in classics?’) When your head is in the right place about this, the answer to those questions will come to you. You can’t see them now because you aren’t ready. Go one step at a time, because you are so steeped in ‘I don’t deserve this goodness’ that you can only handle so much at once. So just take it easily... one course, one contact, one possibility, at a time. The way will open up before you as you grow in your ability to handle seeing it. And keep up your healing work—these two things go together.
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