Joe DeMattio

Both sounds similar but they are different when it comes to being or taking action, respectively.

We all have a purpose in this life - as I understand it, it is to be born, to live, to contribute, and to die. But do we all live with a purpose in life? That is an understanding of this purpose, an acceptance of this purpose, and a passion to fulfill this purpose through our chosen paths.

It’s fairly easy to contribute - to live a purpose. For example, we can buy groceries at the store (a contribution to the community’s farms), we can help our sibling with their math homework (a contribution our family’s education), we can recycle old newspapers (a contribution to the earth), or we can work as a bank teller (a contribution to society’s barter system). For perspective, are such tasks carried out with a purpose or for purpose? Do we buy groceries at the store to give back to the hand that feeds us or do we do it because it’s convenient or they have the lowest prices? Do we help our siblings with their homework because we want to better their educational experience or because our parents said so? Do we recycle old newspapers to reduce our “footprint” on the earth’s ecosystem or because we’ll be taxed if the government finds out that we aren’t recycling? And finally, do we work as bank tellers to truly give back to society what it gives us or is it just another paycheck so we can live day to day?

We can live with a purpose. Our paths are paved by ourselves. Yes, our family and friends help guide us throughout our journey but it is ultimately up to us of how we choose to live. When we decide to live for ourselves, to take responsibility for ourselves, and to discover who/what we are we then begin to develop a passion for our path and purpose. This can come at an early age of independence or later in life. It doesn’t matter how or when, it just matters that we find this passion at some point. Our paths are not always painted in gold and sometimes we need to get knocked around a few times for things to start making sense about our journey and how we’ve gotten here. We NEED those hard times to discover the easy times. We need the bad to understand how to obtain the good. What will help us get back up time and time again is that passion for living with a purpose.

I’m asking for a perspective shift. Rather than living just to live, how about we live with passion? If you don’t believe that you have passion or are in a place in your life that passion can’t exist - then perhaps change so it can exist. I don’t mean quitting your job, dropping out of school, or going on a spontaneous road trip (although sometimes these actions are called for), I mean you must give purpose to your life, your actions, your responsibilities, and truly appreciate the contribution that you (and only you!) have to offer yourself and society.

“We enter and leave this world in the same manner: We enter as a thought and leave as a memory.”

What kind of memory, contribution, footprint, mark, or example will be remembered of you? Better yet, what will you appreciate of yourself as you look back on yesterday?

What is dry?

Teaching the faith life shakes up some people. They don’t want to live there. They want to live as close to material security as they can. But what will happen if all that material stuff is washed away?

So, I wonder if animals wake up in the morning and take a quick minute to reflect on all the things they’ve done and make plans and stuff, or if they just dive head first into doing animal stuff.