We cannot join what we are already participating in:

‘The first half of life is discovering the script, and the second half is actually writing and owning it.’*

These two lives are not made up of years so much as experiences.  Because of the things we have been curious in, the skills we have honed, the experiences we have lived, there is something which emerges for us, something which comes to us.  Martin Seligman thinks of this as a mystical thing and uses an old term:

‘Vocation – being called to act rather than choosing to act – is an old word, but it is a real thing.’**

Seligman is describing how positive psychology chose him rather than he chose it.

This has been described by others in various ways, for example, Ken Robinson speaking of our element^ and Otto Scharmer describing the emergence of our future Self – out of the practices of presencing: opening our mind and opening our heart^^ – what Rohr would name the first life.

Integrity is more than honesty and transparency, it is also about connection: inwardly and outwardly.  The second life Rohr speaks of, or the opening of our wills as Scharmer says, is about all things lining up towards a purpose, and with this, comes hope.

Some discover this at a young age.  I believe I’ve discovered mine in middle age and it’s why I’m a dream whisperer, listening for what a person’s life is asking of them – it’s what I MUST do.  I have shared conversations with people who have given in and embraced their life’s call, but also with many who haven’t – showing how it can be hard to step upon a new road, even if it’s one we’ve prepared for ourselves.

So, I wonder, what are the whispers of your life calling you to?

‘We persevere in the confidence that we ourselves are being transformed.  Perseverance produces character, and character hope.  And hope, we will discover, is the ultimate gift gained in wisdom.’*^

‘So get ready for some new freedom, some dangerous permission, some hope from nowhere, some unexpected happiness, some stumbling stones, some radical grace, and some new and pressing responsibility for yourself and for our suffering world.’*

(*From Richar Rohr’s Falling Upward.)
(**From Martin Seligman’s Flourish.)
(^Ken Robinson’s The Element.)
(^^Otto Scharmer’s Theory U.)
(*^From Erwin McManus’s Uprising.)