Hello Y’all!! Its fun-day Monday and I hope your week has been off to a great start? Happy Veterans day to all those who have laid down their lives for the freedoms we enjoy today. We thank you and we will always remember your sacrifice. Have you noticed there is something festive about the holiday season this year? The spirit of Christmas is already here. 😀 Decorations are going up earlier than normal and the excitement is contagious.

Today’s topic is one that anyone can relate to; whether they have in the past or are yet to figure out in the future. I find that for some people, this comes easy. They were born and as soon as they could speak, they knew what they wanted to do. For others, it comes with first knowing what they like and figuring out if that’s the thing they ‘really’ want to do for the rest of their lives – and if it’s practicable or sustainable. Being an eccentric person myself, finding my place had to come with trying my hands at different things that I loved to do – from arts, clothing, outdoors, food e.t.c This has drawn me to different kinds of people and I have often joked that my friends cannot be friends with each other because they wouldn’t have anything in common. 😀

A Puzzling Reality

I was flying back from a work trip and was seated beside a pleasant gentleman and we got talking about literally everything from countries visited, life, family and hobbies. He worked at a job that paid him to travel all over the world. He had the lifestyle he had always dreamed about and could now afford the luxuries he did not have growing up. He was set for life. As we chatted, I asked him, ‘Do you like what you do’? And after a pause, he said ‘No’, he didn’t like what he did for a living. The money was good but deep down, he wasn’t happy.  😐 I was taken aback. There was a look in his eyes I didn’t see prior. It was as if there was a crack in the facade he had put up and for the first time I could see deep down into his soul. 😦 He could be honest with me because I was a stranger and the probability of our paths ever crossing were next to nil. But still, it was a puzzling revelation.

A colleague of mine is the most compassionate animal lover I have ever seen in my life. This is someone who stopped in the middle of a highway to rescue a stray dog so it wouldn’t be knocked down by speeding traffic. One day after she had finished telling me of her hectic weekend spent at a shelter. I jokingly asked her if she was sure she was in the right profession (architecture) and she jokingly said that many years ago she had seen a palm reader who had told her she would be a veterinarian but she scrapped that for a more prestigious field – architecture – and hates it every day but feels shes too far in to quit.

The Bottom-line.

We don’t all get 120 years to waste rolling around in the hay doing things that don’t count or really fulfill us. Even if you’re stuck doing a job you loathe, find time to do what you ‘REALLY’ love because only then will you truly be at peace. When you lay down at night, you can rest easy in spite of life’s imperfections. You’re content that you’ve found your place in the world!!

Feel free to share your story on your journey to finding ‘your’ place. Until I come your way next time, take care and be safe!

Periwinkle Starr