Life Filled with Purpose
The world has come to an all time slow.
We are forced to confront the shadows of our hearts— the ones we try to forget still lurk there.
This time of self-isolation requires us to be alone, even if we are living with other people. It requires that we sit with ourselves in ways we never had to before.
The other day, I found myself rewatching an old favorite, The Sound of Music. Captain von Trapp and Baroness Schrader are walking through the courtyard when she asks him how he ever manages to leave such a beautiful home so often.
“Activity suggests a life filled with purpose.”
“Could it be running away from memories?”
“Mmhmm. Or perhaps, just searching for a reason to stay.”
In this scene, the Baroness asks a simple, curious question that provokes the Captain to be honest, to be genuine.
“Activity suggests a life filled with purpose.”
We fill our days with endless tasks and events in the name of meaning.
We count our days to the minute in the name of vocation.
We squeeze just one more get together into our calendar, searching for a reason to stay.
Brick by brick, we build a life that only suggests purpose, rather than creating a life that is actually filled with it.
We have lost the art of solitude. The practice of silence.
Surely, if we fill these days to the brim, we don’t have to overthink that one decision we already made, or overanalyze that person’s remark in our conversation.
Surely, if we make ourselves so busy we can barely blink, then we can finally find peace.
It’s a lie. I think we know it.
But now, we are forced to be home, to battle the dragons in our hearts.
Building a life filled with purpose looks less like activity and more like graceful surrender.
A surrender to what is, to what will be.
Activity may suggest a life filled with purpose, but it does not fulfill the weary heart.
Perhaps, all these years, we have been searching for reasons to stay; with ourselves, with each other.
And now, we have been given reason enough.
What does it mean to live a purpose filled life? Perhaps it looks more like doing small things with great love.
Brick by brick, we build a life filled with great purpose, filled with love.