What is "a calling" anyways?

I didn't mean to do back-to-back posts on this forum, but today's blog post is apt for this group. I would really appreciate your thoughts on this.

Over lunch one day a friend was telling me about Chip Conley’s book, How Great Companies Get their Mojo from Maslow. She was impressed with his philosophy of using the model for personal success and translating that to businesses. Taking it from one individual’s “peak experiences” and applying them to corporate transformation. Part of it was evaluating which slot one puts one’s professional enterprise in: a job, a career, or a calling.

I understand what a job is — it’s the oft-mundane 9-5 grunt work that pays the bills. It usually doesn’t involve passion, vision, or aspiration.

I think I also understand what a career is — it’s when you take off those blinkers at that job and chart a plan for your professional growth. It is a commitment to improving your opportunities, your salary, and provides some amount of satisfaction. In some cases, it defines who you are, what you stand for, and where you’re headed.

A calling … hmm … now that’s a word I don’t fully comprehend. According to various websites, dictionaries, and blog posts, it is work that gives you immense satisfaction. You wouldn’t necessarily even want to be paid for it. It defines for folks their “purpose” in life.

Bu what is our purpose in life? A friend told me yesterday, she thinks it’s something that stems from one’s beliefs. But how do you form your beliefs? Aren’t your beliefs based on the knowledge you have at any given point of time? And if that is so, shouldn’t they change as you grow, are exposed to new ideas, thoughts, people…? And if your beliefs change, then doesn’t your purpose in life also shift?

So, how do we say that a calling is something constant. That somehow you know this is the one and only thing you were born to do. Isn’t that really a way of saying that at this point of time in your life, given all you know about yourself and your surroundings, this is the best you can do with your talent, time, energy, and expertise? And because at this particular point of time you think this is the best use of your potential, that it gives you immense satisfaction? Ergo, this is your calling … for now.

Of course, this led to a whole new stream of questions about what potential is — both perceived and actual — and how we define time. But that’s another blog post.

I hear many people say that their work is their calling — they drop the word around so casually even though it supposedly carries so much weight … but here I am … not even sure what that word means.

I love writing. I always have. In my journey to becoming a writer, I explored many other options but wasn’t very good at any of those. Writing grounds me. It helps me grow as a person. It helps me connect. It satisfies me when I write for myself — like this blog. I don’t get paid for this, yet I do this every single day — so does it mean that this is my “calling”?

Does it also then imply that I have reached the highest point of my potential? That there really isn’t anything in this world besides writing that would give me the same satisfaction? That nothing else will come close to challenging me, uplifting me? That this is the end?

But there are so many things out there I haven’t even tried. Some things I don’t even know about, forget trying. Then how can I limit myself to one calling? How can I tell myself this is all I was born to do? Maybe there’s a host of other things I can do well and derive satisfaction from … how can I say just this is it?

Just like we’re moving away from the idea of having only one career in a lifetime, can’t we at least look at having more than one calling in life? Maybe there is something to that whole concept that needs a little revisiting …

Maybe not?

What do you think “a calling” means anyways?

Angel Meditations with Archangel Michael

There are many ways that you can meditate and using the angelic realm is one way. Archangels watch over guardian angels and support them in supporting their assigned humans. Archangel Michael's name means 'He who is like God.' Archangel Michael is depicted as a prince in the Bible who fights against lower energy. He is a protector and helps people who are willing to remember and fulfill their life's purpose. Archangel Michael holds a sword of light to cut away fearful attachments that bind us in lower energy. He gives us courage and strength to make life changes that we need to make.

In meditation you can call on Archangel Michael for protection,courage and to fill you with calmness to help you manage the daily crises in life. Archangel Michael helps you to bring anything you are holding in the dark and bring it to light. In the light the truth can be seen. Archangel Michael can then help you cut the fearful cords that keep you connected to the past and unhelpful ways of thinking. Once Archangel Michael cuts the cords, he fills you with his cobalt blue rays to heal the empty spaces created by the release of the old.

To invoke Archangel Michael or any angel or Archangel all you need to do is call their name. Visualize Archangel Michael with his bright sword and cobalt blue cloak standing in front of you. Ask him to help cut away the fearful cords of attachments and visualize the cords being cut away from you. You must ask that it is for the highest good for all involved.

You must not ask for cords to be cut from your children as they still need that connection from their birth parents to grow and feel connected. Ask that all is brought to the light so that it can be released. What remains in the dark cannot be released. Trust in Archangel Michael to do his job. He does not need you to direct him in what he does. All you need to do is bring all your worries and fears to him and he will perform his role.

As Archangel Michael fills you with his positve cobalt rays you will fill a shift of energies. Picture his cloak placed gently over you covering you from head to foot, tucked under your toes. Thank Archangel Michael for his assistance and trust that you are now protected and free from negativity.

You can also meditate with Archangel Michael for him to show you your life's purpose. You may receive insight instantly of what it is you are here to do. Or during the day, weeks or months you may stumble across the answer. For example, you may decide to join a course you never thought of doing before, you may meet someone who shares some useful information with you, or you may just know what it is you must do.

Archangel Michael is ready to help, no task is too small or too big, all you need to do is ask, and trust that you are safe and protected. Saint Michal, as he is also known is also the patron saint of police men, security guards and sailors, and he can also help in protecting you on journeys. Any thing that you need protection, courage or clarity with, Archangel Michael is ready to assit.

An article I wrote on Helium.com

The Energy of a Place

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada and before I moved here I had a lot of misconceptions about the place. Some have been fed by those who promote the city, the whole "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" slogan, and the old ideas of the mob and the rat pack lingered in my imagination. Then there was the whole idea of a desert with miles of rolling sand dunes, extreme heat, and nothing else. The misconceptions about the land and climate were the first to be squelched when we moved here in 1996, the rest of the misconceptions would gradually drop away as I gradually got to know and fall in love with what I now consider my hometown.

There are some behaviors and attitudes, and there are certainly activities that continue to pervade the culture here that I find to be unsavory, but I also know after living in more than one place that this is true in pockets of any place. There is an independent spirit in the people here, and of course there are many here who have a penchant for risk and excess, but there is also the energy here of the willingness to start over, begin anew, to redefine and to reinvent. I love this energy.

This city has gone through a lot of changes since it's inception as a city and it continues to evolve, it does so rapidly and it does it for survival. I often consider the energy of the people in an area to have a great affect on the energy of the place, and vice versa. There is incredible beauty in the landscape here, it breathes positivity into you, and there is a yearning by many here to preserve that beauty. I have high hopes for our city that we are going to be moving to the leading edge of the greening of this country, we have so many natural energy resources and I believe the spirit to do so. I hope that the energy that I strive to infuse into my environment has an impact, and I am seeing more like minded spirits arriving at this place.

We've been having a lot of moisture here lately and this has brought snow to the mountains, so my husband and I went up into the mountains this weekend to visit the snow and I took pictures. The picture I posted at the head of this post is one of them, below are more for your viewing pleasure, and I hope I have given you a different view of the city where I live - Las Vegas.

posted by Aine