Write Right

The Writing Life

Living on Mission

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Storm Trooper with teddy bear.When you figure out what you’re meant to do – what you’re really, really meant to do – things begin to come into focus. You begin to view your life through a certain lens, a particular mission. The more you work with that lens, the clearer the picture becomes. You turn it this way and that to account for the extra light or darkness. You do what you must to keep that picture clear and in focus.

It isn’t easy; living on mission can mean making radical choices, often choices that won’t be understood by those closest to you. You may have to give up some good things in order to pursue better things. Your friends may wonder why you don’t answer your phone. Your family may think you’re slightly, if not completely, insane to choose the route you have. You, too, have your doubts about this mission. You wonder if you can do it. You wonder if you can bring the picture you see to fruition. You wonder what will happen when it comes time to remove the film from the camera or to work in the dark room. Perhaps the image won’t be as clear then. Perhaps it will be marred by something outside your control. What then?

Indeed, what then. In that then, you must make a choice. Either you choose to leave that mission and to pursue other things, or you choose to believe you have a mission, a calling, despite the misgivings. You look at the picture again. You decide what you have to do next to make the image sharper, to make the results better the next time you develop the film. You decide you have a mission, and you choose to live by it.

Image: Kristina Alexanderson (CC BY NC SA 2.0)

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. ExtremelyAvg says

    You described exactly how I’ve felt for over three years. I don’t really go out and socialize more than about once per year. I visit my parents a few times per month, but mostly I just work on books or book related stuff.
    It isn’t that I don’t like being out in the world and doing fun stuff, it’s just that I believe my mission comes first. When I’ve reached the “Tipping Point”, as Malcolm Gladwell says, then I’ll become a social create again…or find a new mission. 🙂

  4. Erin F. says

    ExtremelyAvg I think it depends on where you are in life, too. I know I’m at a certain juncture where I welcome some interruptions into my oh-so-busy life.
    My mission, if I get beyond the surface level of the writing, editing, and art, is people. If any three of those things become an obstruction to being a blessing to others, then it will be time for me to quit those things. Am I meant to write and draw and seemingly edit? I think so, but only insofar as I remember to consider others more important than myself.
    I think you must be able to do without fewer social interactions than I. 🙂

Trackbacks

  1. […] The phrase is a bit more personal than that; my mom referred to the same verse in a letter she wrote me a few years ago. She wanted me to remember to be strong. She wanted me to think about doing the work I was and am called to do then to go out and actually do it. She wrote those words to a girl who was about to enter college, but the words still resonate today: be strong and do the work. […]

  3. […] Both Gaiman and Rumi seem to express the same thought: keep calm and do what you’re called to do. Do it when you’re wounded and hurting. Do it when you’re struggling just to get out of bed in the morning or to eat a meal. Do it when you’re unencumbered. Don’t let the external ruin the internal. Don’t get distracted from what matters most. Don’t let the pain, the sorrow, the anger, or the happiness keep you from doing what you’re meant to do. […]

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