Do you have purpose in your life?

nellie What's more, you're dear singed-bottomed Donald's keeper... and my mate!

Nellie - I have also taken various paths through pure chance - like seeing an advert for trainee tax inspectors in an old copy of The Independent which I found on a train. In general, these serendipitous choices have worked out well. I think it is a matter of being ready to exploit any opportunities that come your way.

My purpose in life (for the time being) is to finish reading The Jewel In The Crown.

I have never had a life plan or purpose,I have never followed any particular path,I just go where life leads me and make the best of wherever I end up,for me I am sure that I have adapted to changes in my life and restrictions because I can just go with the flow,I might not have made a mark on the world on my journey but have had lots of fun on the way and left a few footprints behind

Burgundygran - soop has said it so well and I agree. Your very presence is good for your family and I am sure they would all miss you greatly.

BurgundyGran You obviously do have a real purpose...your love for your family is just that. I admire you.

Since becoming disabled I have thought I didn't have a purpose. Everyone has to do so much for me that I feel totally useless. My GC tell me I am a great nana and love to spend time with me but I can play games with them, run around, take them for long walks but I do crafts, write them stories, read to them it seems there is always something I can do. I do prepare meals with my husband's help so I need to believe in ME!

Absent - I don't think your daughter would agree that you are not useful! You will certainly be very important in helping her to reach her goal in NZ.

I have been much happier since I accepted that I am not going to write a brilliant novel, become Prime Minister, or save the world. Now, my aim in life is simply to enjoy it, which includes enjoying being able to give support to family and friends.
If don't think life has a purpose - the urge to procreate is very strong in all organisms (otherwise, the species would not have survived) but to say that is a purpose suggests it was planned by someone or something, which I don't believe. It has just happened through a random coming together of suitable climatic conditions and raw materials.

No, just wonderful!

No, you're sooper

My purpose is to do my absolute best to support those I love through the worst of times and celebrate with them at the best of times. Sometimes, the people I love are neither close family members or even friends. I have the same need to comfort total strangers. Am I strange?

Thank you flower - still looking forward to our lunch, BTW..see you in the autumn.

specki4eyes Not many miles away from you I too have been awake since 4.30. This time not worrying about my family. Just couldn't sleep. Something that has been a problem for me since I was widowed nearly two years ago now.

My half-sister who is a bereavement counsillor asked me a little while ago what now was my purpose or plan for my life. I was just as stumped as many of the posters on this topic. I have great sympathy with your view of life and I suppose affinity with it. Have a lovely birthday lunch and I hope that getting up early might actually help your creativity with your painting.

Expressing myself in my last post set me thinking more deeply..I was wrong to say that my 'world' doesn't revolve around my family - it actually does. But my 'day to day existence' doesn't. That's the difference. It's been brought home to me vividly during the past few weeks that my family's happiness is an essential part of my own well-being. When any of them are hurting, then the joie de vivre goes out of my life. But I can't make them my 'purpose' at this stage of my life - the best analogy I can muster is that they're like a kettle murmuring gently on the hob. The time to get involved is when the gentle murmuring changes in any way.

Hope this is not too deep - I've had another restless night worrying about my son and I've been fully awake since 4.30am. But today I'll probably do a bit more of my current painting and I'll go to my friend's 60th birthday lunch and I'll enjoy both. That's all.

I feel quite selfish because even though my children and grandchildren are THE MOST BELOVED people in my life (apart from my DH who is naturally included in that) my world doesn't revolve around them. When I retired abroad, I set out to fill my days with the things I'd always wanted to do when I was a working mother and housewife. So I play tennis, golf and bridge and sing in a choir(all very sociable hobbies). I'm enjoying gardening and I'm now able to follow the dream I had when I left school, which was to be a painter. My father had insisted I train for a 'proper' job so I did just that, then married at 19 and started my family at 21. 10 years later my first marriage broke up and I became the breadwinner. When I remarried, we had four children between us, so work remained a necessity. Now, we expect our children to manage their lives independently of us, which they do. We love them, we think of them, we help as and when required and retain weekly contact, but our lives are now ours to live. They have all said they appreciate that we are not needy and demanding with them. I sometimes feel guilty that I'm not there for them when needed in practical terms, but then they won't be there for me either when I go ga-ga. If you have read what is happening in my family at the moment on another thread, this is an occasion when I wish I had my own private plane! C'est la vie!

To achieve something and make a difference. At present all sorts of things come at me just like one of those games where you try to avoid being bowled over or knocked out. My life's quite stressful as there's lots of things going on both at work and in the family and I often don't feel 100% but I make lists and set targets and try to make the most of interesting opportunities that come my way which are sometimes quite challenging.

crimson - that about sums me up too!

We do set ourselves a lot of rules, don't we? Especially now, when no-one else is making them for me, I'm always thinking "I ought to.." If I'm making them, then I can break them!

(And I'm already adding the proviso "providing it doesn't hurt anyone...")

Desiderata

for PRINTMISS

Anyone know the Desiderata poem? That sort of tells you not to expect too much of yourself, and I quite like that idea, because I sometimes think we feel we 'ought' to be doing something useful, when really, all we need to do is just nothing, so that we can enjoy what we have. That again sounds a bit 'pious', but so what it works for me, and it is a really good excuse for not doing the things I 'ought' to be doing.

Gosh; I have just realised that I've spent most of my life on a diet, so, perhaps my raison d'etre is to get thin, then fat, then thin, then fat......

And johanna!

All welcome Glass.

I like the sound of that jingle can I join

jingl you'd have to know what your purpose in life was before you could safely say you hadn't achieved it. I suppose you could say 'sod it' anyway - I really don't see how you can know what the purpose of your life has been until you're at the end of it anyway!
But that's different to 'having a purpose', isn't it?