Dear Reader:

How many times throughout our life have we prayed to God to show us our own unique purpose on earth… the purpose, we have been told, cannot be accomplished by anyone else. In a sense it is ours and our only nomenclature… specifically devised for us by our Creator.

Yet for many of us, and I am one of the ” many”… we spend a good portion of our lives searching for this seemingly elusive purpose. And sometimes it takes a catastrophic event to show us our path to follow. As painful and scary as this can be… we discover how life changes when we change our path.

What got me thinking along these lines were some observational comments from my ” dear friend, traveling buddy, and teaching soulmate” Carol Poole in response to the blog post on St. Jude’s Chapel of Hope last week… and finding my purpose… to share stories for and from those who can no longer orally tell it themselves.

Carol wrote when she first received the news about my initial daunting diagnosis back in 2008 …she couldn’t understand the ” why” behind it until suddenly the blog post ( Chapel of Hope Stories) began appearing daily. She knew then, that no matter what happened chronically, I had found my purpose.

And then a God Wink confirmed this awareness through…what else? A story she discovered. It was the love of storytelling through Social Studies that had brought us together in the first place…. traveling around the state doing teacher workshops together.

Quick Overview: All the people of the forest stay amazed at the speed of the bird known as She Who Flies Swiftly. She is like a bright light among the forest green. Until… one day she is found floundering on the leafy ground with a broken wing.

As the people watch …the Creator arrives to hold her hand and bring comfort… but to their dismay… not heal her wing. Why did the Creator not heal her completely?

Left alone the lame bird begins to sing quietly at first. With time the song becomes more beautiful and if one listens carefully the song becomes a duet… with the soft accompaniment of the Creator himself.

At last the true purpose was clear… healing can come in many different ways releasing our true purpose in life… as the Creator intended.

Carol had found the perfect metaphor… it was time to share my story with God’s story… my true purpose unveiled. Carol wrote me and reiterated this same observation…I could reach more people through my new path now. No longer hurriedly rushing from presentation to presentation but thoughtfully taking time to release my ” voice ” … from my tiny speck in the universe.

So until tomorrow… ” We are not always repaired, instead we are re-created.” Ray Buckley

Today is my favorite day. Winnie the Pooh