“If gardening brings us alive, that is part of our path, if it is music, if it is conversation . . . we must follow what brings us alive.” —David Steindl-Rast, Benedictine brother

This past week, I took myself out into the garden (don’t worry, if you are not a gardener, this is not a post about gardening, but will establish the focus of this post 😌). I dove into a project I have been wanting to tend to for some time, and in so doing, lost all track of time. My delight swelled, and any exhaustion completely ignored. Envisioning what would eventually come to existence with the changes I was making spurred me to keep going until all the newly created plants (from separating older, expanded plants) had found their home and were happily transplanted. At one point a neighbor passing by reminded me that it would soon reach 70 degrees! A reminder to take a break and tuck away out of the sun (don’t worry, I had a sun hat on, long sleeves and pants, and sunscreen – consequently, I was incredibly hot 🤦‍♀️). But, to my point, I hadn’t noticed! I was enthralled!

Perhaps it isn’t gardening for you that brings you to life and engrosses your full attention, but instead learning and applying new skills in any other field, an area of exploration that fascinates your curiosity – medicine, ceramics, music, physics, relationships, graphic design, anything at all. Likely, you have more than one area of enjoyment where you spontaneously light up when engaged in its tasks. In these moments of engagement, you are drilled into the now without even trying. It just happened.

What brings you to life? Or as the quote above states, brings you alive?

We can doubt our inner compass if what we love to do comes easily to us, others don’t understand, or others take enjoyment in something quite different. The neophyte aficionado may consider following the interests others understand, but over time, we realize that the only way to live a fulfilled life is to live one we enjoy.

When we come to life with what we are doing, we discover new ahas, make different connections than we may have in the past in the field of exploration we are engaged in, and we are less likely to feel a sense of competition because it isn’t about approval from the outside world. It is about enjoying the ‘doing’.

I reflect on my own childhood, and what I could lose time in were shared time with my animals, reading, writing, and being outside. Most of these interests were not part of my world for about 10 years as I stepped into adulthood, and I only had to step away from them to see how discontent I was. Wrongly, I thought life was about conforming, dimming our light, but thankfully, I saw sense and while it took some courage, returning to doing what brought me to life made all the difference.

What brings us to life doesn’t have to be our way we make our living. In fact, it likely won’t be at first, if at all. What embracing what brings us to life does is hold us in the present moment so we can fully see and feel life as it is. In these moments, we make connections about all sorts of life’s questions, especially questions about ourselves, and this gives us clarity and then confidence, because we are calm and deeply focused on what we are doing, and we so enjoy doing what brings us to life.

I write often about my dogs. Directly, I am sharing our adventures, taking members (via A Cuppa Moments) on walks with Oscar, Norman, Nelle, and me, capturing photos of them as we go about our daily life. Indirectly, by embracing unabashedly my affection for my pups and enjoying their companionship in my life, calm immediately is experienced in my life, and thus clarity arrives about life decisions – large and small. My dogs aren’t my calling or career, but they are what bring me to life. Thus, my choice to have them be in my life has played a significant role in giving me the confidence to live the life that continues to ground me in contentment.

I can remember early in my blogging career (I began in 2009), I came across a site focused on anonymous online chatting about bloggers (needless to say, I no longer look up such sites), and happening on one commenter writing about me, “She’s going to live alone for the rest of her life with dogs as her companions – how sad.” I know they meant this as a dig, but as you can imagine, that life sounds quite amazing, something I would feel fortunate to live and experience. Yet at the time, because I knew their intentions, it stung. I had to remind myself that to change how I lived in an attempt to gain approval (in this case, from complete strangers, but we must also dismiss living to gain approval from anyone if it dims our light) would never bring me joy, and thus could never lead to living a life of true contentment.

Engaging in activities and ways of life (in my case, living with my dogs) that bring us to life makes all the difference. We don’t know what the difference will be, but it will be life-elevating in what we discover, how it nourishes us, and the peace and thus contentment we will discover. We just have to be brave enough to trust that ‘coming to life’ is the answer.

When we do what brings us to life, we are simultaneously held in the present moment without even trying. By being present, deeply engaged with our full attention, we aren’t influenced by outside ‘musts’ or ‘shoulds,’ and we build a quiet confidence as we enjoy ourselves and what we are doing. This confidence builds in helping us making other decisions that may seem unconnected to our chosen activities, but it is because of our engagement in those activities that we have clarity about the best decision for our life moving forward.

The unfolding of each decision that comes from our sincerity to honor our inner compass is gradual, but it does happen. Nearly 15 years after I read that comment, my life is exactly as they have described, and I am beyond grateful and feel most fortunate that it is. I wouldn’t want it any other way, and that has made all the difference – embracing, choosing, making time for what ‘brings me alive’.

Today, set aside any guilt for doing what you love, for investing time and money in the activities, projects, or trips that ignite you each time you take part in them. Your choice to do so will enhance the quality of your entire life beyond the moments when you are engaged in what you love.

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