Calling

I'm here today in the NGO office that I am now officially with and grateful that things have worked out the way they have. I will write more on this later but for today wanted to share a reading I came across in The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo.

Our Sense of Calling

Every year, around the scalp of the planet, the caribou run the same path of migration along the edge of the Arctic Circle. They are born with some innate sense that calls them to this path. And every year, along the way, packs of coyote wait to feed on the caribou. And every year, despite the danger, the caribou return and make their way.

Often nature makes difficult things very clear. What feels like confusion is frequently our human refusal to ssee things for what they are. What lesson do the caribou shout to us with the thunder of their hooves as they deepen the crown of the planet? They are evidence, even as we speak, of the fact that in every living thing there is an inner necessity that outweighs all consequence. For the caribou it is clear what it is.

For spirits cried in human form, it is a blessing and a curse that we don’t always know our calling. Part of our migration is the fining out. What is it we are called to, beneath all formal ambition? The caribou tell us that, though there are risks and dangers that wait in the world, we truly have no choice but to live out what we are born with, to find and work our path.

These elegant animals bespeak a force deeper than courage, and, though some would call the caribou stupid, the mystery of their migration reveals to us the quiet, irrepressible emergence of living over hiding, of being over thinking, of participating over observing, of thriving over surviving.

In regions near the Arctic, the caribou are not just seen as animals living out an instinct at all cost. Rather, it is believed that their endless run, no matter what stands in their way, is what keeps the Earth turning. And somewhere, beneath all hesitation and despair, it is our endless call to being, in each of us together, that keeps the fire at the center of the Earth burning.

Sit quietly and ask yourself what you are called to. If you don’t have a sense of inner calling, please read on anyway.

Describe what arises without any conclusion. If you feel called to sing, do not conclude you need to become a singer. If you feel called to paint, do not conclude you need to become a painter. If you feel called to plant, do not conclude you need to become a gardener.

Stay with the essence of what arises. Receive it as an energy that lives inside you and not as a goal you have to achieve.