I’m buried.  I can’t seem to rise to the top of this ponderous load of files, papers, and “to-do” items.  As I stare down this ever-growing mass of disturbing busyness each morning, my psyche is drowned in despair.  The odds of “catching up” appear insurmountable.

Lost in the mix is peace.  I mean real peace.  The kind that saturates one’s soul to the point of knowing that your purpose transcends the anxieties scattered across your desktop.  Peace will not be found in the pile, top or bottom.  It will not be found even if the impossibility of conquering your work were attained. 

Where is peace hiding?  To answer this question, I think we need to return to the concept of purpose.  Why are we here, after all?  Is our life nothing more than slashing through “work” at mach speed all week long so that we can justify some fleeting weekend freedom?  I hope not.  Life should be much more grand.  More blissful.  What a waste of the natural beauties and joys that surround us just outside the office doors.  So at least for the sake of humoring your humble author, let’s conclude that our purpose is not defined by what we do at work, or how much “stuff we get done”. 

In the midst of your daily chaos, have you ever wrenched yourself away from the busyness long enough to express love through an act of service, large or small?  Gratifying, wasn’t it?  There’s a clue.  These things speak to something dormant in our souls.  Something that worldly accomplishments can’t touch.  In the grander scheme, if just a small favor for fellow man brings peace and joy to our soul, could it be possible that our purpose here on earth involves loving on a much broader scale?  Work fits into the broad outlay of your life.  It does not define it.  Live encompasses marriage, friendship, work, and all activity and interaction, not just one of these.  Especially not just work, which is merely a means to the ends of worldly supplementation.

If just an ounce of love surpasses the sense of worth of a month full of job-related accomplishment, imagine finding love in all of your prayers, works, joys, and sufferings!  All aspects of your life!  The world and its machinations do not own your soul, which always retains the potential to experience and express joy, no matter the occasion or disposition of the body.  If this doesn’t immediately make sense, ponder the concept deeply for a few minutes with an open mind and see what happens.

Along the way, we’ll continue to be steeped in this other-worldly sense of vagueness of purpose.  We’ll be tempted to feel and think that we’re too busy to stop working for even a moment.  We can become so consumed by this ill-defined sense of inundation that we cease to live, love, and be.  The cloud that surrounds us is superimposed despair, a false sense that balance in life is impossible.  Transcend it, and find your peace.

VJD