16 Mar An Invitation to Celebrate Finding Where You Fit and Living Your Unique Purpose

I really believe we are all here for a reason. I was in a rundown area today not far from where I live and I witnessed a fellow swaggering along and shouting in a hostile tone to people he had been interacting with. He was not drunk, I don’t think, but he looked angry. 

I don’t know anything about his scenario, but it is not an unusual scene in the area where I was, and it got me thinking about the internal frustrations we go through as men and the many factors which contribute to our frustrations.

Sometimes our frustrations are a result of the lack of opportunities we perceive, at other times it might be the annoyances we encounter as we try to navigate the complexity of relationships with significant others, and at other times it may just be the weight of social, relational and familial expectations to fit particular roles, show up in certain ways and be everything everyone else expects us to be – or indeed not to be. 

Some environments don’t take kindly to individuals who think outside the parameters of the socially accepted norms of the neighbourhood, to not walk around swaggering and shouting as a man might make you vulnerable to people thinking of you as less than a man. 

So your whole way of being becomes shaped by your external environment when in fact you have not even scratched the surface of what’s possible for you, or who in fact you could be if you simply were able to take the time to look within and discover the depth of who you really are. 

This is not to say that the us which we became to navigate our environment has no relevance, but it is to reiterate what Socrates said; ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’. If who we are is simply a product of our environment, then who we are is in fact probably not really who we are. And in so much as this is the case we likely are also a stranger to ourselves. 

Therefore, when in The Second Half of Life we have had sufficient experiences to cause us to want to look deeper and we hear the summons of our Souls to live a more authentic and integrated life, what beckons us is an immense privilege. Not everyone hears the call. Or some stand on the crossroads and deem the sacrifice of their social acceptability, their name, status and career to date too high a price to sacrifice for a more holistic and balanced approach to their lives. 

You however, are reading this article, therefore, you are more than likely on the path, doing the work. And if that is the case bro, this is cause for great celebration because meaning, purpose and personhood unfold here. Becoming, getting to realise who you really are and allowing the butterfly to unfold as it emerges out of the cocoon of your worm like slithering to the lofty heights of flitting gorgeously amongst the flowers. That is the opportunity which we have before us. I invite you therefore, as unmanly as it may appear to frolic in the fields of purposeful enterprise and dance to your own tune and hear the music your Soul wants to make through you.