I have a card hanging on my office door that reads: "We must absolutely do what we Love", she said,"Or we run the risk of doing nothing at all." I have placed it at eye level so I read it often….and sometimes just at the right moment in time, when I need the reminder most.
It is graduation party time and I have been making the rounds to the various garages, backyard tents, decks or patios of the recent high school grads. These gatherings are always wonderful, seeing these young adults as the center of attention, knowing the party is just for them. I love reading their letters of acceptance from the colleges that will be their homes come fall. The college letter usually sits next to the shrines of pictures, awards, yearbooks, ribbons and other ‘things’ they hold dear….soccer shoes, teddy bears, a musical instrument, a letter jacket.
At one such party yesterday I spoke with the older brother of the graduate. He graduated last spring from college and is now out in the ‘real world.’ I listened to his story of college, his first corporate job which was a huge disappointment. Now in his new business, he is finding great success. I have known him since he was small and one of the things he always loved was fish…..fish tanks, fishing, fishing boats….fish. He talked with pride about this new business, his own business……. of setting up, stocking and maintaining aquariums. His knowledge of it all keeps him in business and his love for his work shines through his description of his clients, the fish and his hopes for what the future of his business holds.
What a joy it was to see someone who knows what he loves and gets to do it! What might the world be like if we all were able to so fully know what we love and find the way to live the gifts of that love in the world? So many of us have spent a lot of years diverted down paths of ‘should’ or ought to’ rather than the path of ‘love to’. Sometimes those things we love are the simpler things, the ones that often bring about the most happiness and, coincidentally, the least stress.
It would be my prayer that all the graduates would have the opportunity to ask themselves the questions: "What do I love? How can I live it out in the world?" And in the asking, they will have the opportunity to choose that path that will help them live out a long and happy life……filled with love.
"What we choose changes us. Who we love transforms us. How we create remakes us. Where we live reshapes us. So in all our choosing, O God, make us wise; in all our loving, O Christ, make us bold; in all our creating, O Spirit, give us courage, in all our living may we become whole." Jan L. Richardson