What If a Calling Keeps Returning?
On the ideas that follow us—and the difference between listening and having every answer.
By Edlin Wayfinder · 2 min read · A personal reflection
Some interests visit. Others seem to move in.
They return after the busy season, after the sensible decision, after the explanation of why now is not the right time. A subject. A way of working. A form of expression. A life you can almost hear.
I use the word calling because it gives language to that sense of being drawn. It leaves room for soul, intuition and the possibility that our lives contain more meaning than we can currently explain.
I’m drawn to the belief that there may be an inward direction to a life: something we participate in bringing into being, rather than something we merely invent on demand.
That is a spiritual and philosophical conviction I want to explore, not a formula that can tell another person what their destiny must be.
A recurring pull still deserves a conversation. What, exactly, are you drawn to? The work itself? The feeling you imagine it will give you? The contribution? The identity? There can be more than one answer.
And what if you have several callings? Perhaps the first task is not to amputate every interest except one. Perhaps it is to listen for a thread: the question, quality or form of contribution that keeps appearing in different clothes.
Listening does not have to mean turning your life upside down. It can mean making a little space, trying something concrete and attending to what you discover.
Read. Make. Speak. Practise. Meet the ordinary work behind the beautiful possibility. Notice whether your relationship with it becomes richer when you give it time.
I want to make room for wonder without making us passive. If we believe something is calling, we still have a part to play in answering.
Perhaps you do not need certainty about your whole destiny today. Perhaps you need an honest response to the thing that will not quite leave you alone.
Edlin