Callings II: Remembering

“Our past is intricately woven into our calls, and we can learn much about those calls by casting the occasional glance backward.”

–     Writer Toni Morrison, as quoted in Gregg Levoy’s book, “Callings”

Morrison cited the example of the Mississippi River, which, while straightened out in places to make room for more towns and fertile, river-bottom croplands, sometimes floods back to it’s original path.  “In fact,” Morrison writes, “it is not flooding, it is remembering.  All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was.”

One of the best interview questions I’ve ever heard is, “What kind of work is both effortless and energizing for you?”

Effortless AND energizing.

Athletes and performers talk about “being in the zone.”  When we’re following our calling, we feel like we’re in the zone most of the time.

My friend Danny Smith takes a Christian approach to the topic on his blog, “The Theology of Work.”  But the topic of Callings isn’t just about Faith.  It’s about honoring our wiring, maximizing our gifts and getting to a place where we’re spending more time on the energizing, effortless, difference-making stuff within us, and spending less time at “the grind.”

If our dreams are worth considering, so then, are our memories.

There might be a hurt in our past that, when healed (or forgiven) will unleash our calling.  There might be a class, or a place that inspired us and made us feel “right.”  There might be a time when we realized, clearly, that “BAM! THIS is what I want to do all the time!”  There might be a river bed within us that was once straightened but that needs to be allowed to flow.

Effortless and energizing.  Remembering.  Honoring our callings.  That’ll make a difference.