So many of us stumble through life without a genuine sense of who we are and what we should do. One of things that brings us the greatest joy and peace is when we finally connect with what our soul seems to be calling us toward. What are our gifts? What are the through-lines that seem to be showing up again and again in most things we do? Are there practices we can undertake that might help us drill down and name exactly what that those are?
This episode is about discernment, especially in relation to our careers, as well as when we meet forks in the road or in some other way are forced to make decisions about what’s next. It features LDF host Dan Wotherspoon in conversation with his friend and fellow spiritual traveler, Megan Popa about discerning ways to match what we do in the world with what we sense might be our life’s calling. It’s a difficult process, and it usually only truly discovered over the course of a lifetime. Still, it is helpful to be able to recognize as early as we can the outline of what that might be.
Megan shares about her life path and the various types of work she has done and is doing now, and through this telling we meet a woman continually narrowing down options in search of discovering that which truly matches her soul’s calling. Dan speaks a bit about this, too, but also presents several possible exercises we might do in an effort to clarify who we are at our cores and ways we might find a path that is in harmony with what we discover.
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Poetry about Discernment
The Journey
Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.
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“I’m Tired, I’m Whipped”
Nevin Compton Trammell
I’m tired
I’m whipped
too dumb to quit
too smart
to let life go by
I’m working hard
to find truth
in my own backyard
I’ve done everything
but die
Took the long way around
on a short ride to town
found a pass
where few have been
Gained a love
lost a friend
scraped my knees
learning to please
started out
with no choice
somewhere
somehow
found my
voice.