There are many paths in life that all can lead to fulfillment and happiness. Each path has different priorities and requires different skills. After being on the journey of life for a significant number of years, I have come to know that purpose is a powerful companion.
When I was younger, my purpose was mostly the desire for new and unique experiences. I wanted to see things and do things and try things purely because of an insatiable curiosity. The world was full of new and interesting opportunities, and I didn’t want to say no to any of them. Guided by the old improv instruction, “Always say yes and…,” I walked through life’s phases with a sense of wonder and impulsive curiosity.
That lead me to uncharted waters and unprecedented adventures. But I got to the point where I felt like I had lost the thread and was simply existing. So I made some big changes and stirred the pot up quite a bit to refocus my intentions. By gathering the puzzle pieces of previous accomplishment and experience, I was able to piece together a clearer vision for my future.
I realized that after all these years, I had followed the path of a humanitarian. Doing jobs like teaching because I wanted to help children expand their curiosity and wonder. Doing jobs like law enforcement because I wanted to be the empathetic change I believed the community needed. Doing jobs like cooking because I wanted to serve others in tangible ways.
So over 30-ish years of adulthood, I amassed lots of career accomplishment and know-how, but my purpose had become diluted. Each time I tried to work to help a cause, it seemed to get mottled and mired in my personal limited reach or disconnected impact. At this point, I was disillusioned with working to make change inside other people’s frameworks. I gave up on the idea of working my way up through the ranks anywhere, and just decided I was going to start living the values I have and doing the things I believe in.
That’s when I turned to farming. I believe in helping people. That can mean all kinds of things, but honestly it can also mean overcoming a lot of convoluted bureaucracy. So I picked a social problem that I wanted to concentrate my energies on, hunger, and I just started doing things to fulfill that personal mission. I decided I wanted to feed people, and the most direct way to do that seemed to be through farming: grow food and get it in the hands of the hungry.
When I started, I didn’t have most of the answers I would need like: how does one commercially grow food? So I sought out education, which landed me in farm school. But growing skills takes time, so I sought out a way to help someone else who was already feeding people while I built up my farming experience. That’s how I first encountered For The Love and their neighbor night meals.
Today, I spend most of my time in some part of the food system. I am either farming and growing plants or serving food to my community. It results in a lot of time outside, which can be brutal for someone so prone to sunburns like me, but it is worth it. Every day, I feel like I am continuing to harvest my purpose one willful act at a time.
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