This weekend I completed a project that had been a priority for almost two months. I should have been utterly delighted because in its completion I was sending it to someone who had expressed an excited interest in possibly helping me to take it to the next level. Yet yesterday, upon my return from getting it out into the overnight mail stream, I recognized that having it finally off my plate had left me feeling a bit lost. When I climbed into bed last night, my boyfriend, Dean, helped me to get in touch with what was going on. I had temporarily lost my sense of purpose. I had mistaken this project, which I see as a means of expressing my purpose, as the purpose itself.

What came to me this morning is that purpose is just as much about the little things as it is the big projects. While I knew this intellectually, sometimes I have to experience a lesson that reminds me to feel it in my heart. And this morning I was led to that perfect experience when I received two emails from people asking for my input about issues that affected their happiness. I felt a true sense of purpose in these one-on-one exchanges.

In her work, Sacred Contracts, Caroline Myss talks about the challenges we have in seeing our purpose unfolding because we’re so focused on the past and the future that we can’t clearly see what’s happening in the moment. It’s when we look at everything that comes across our path as contributing to our purpose, that we can begin to see where we are in the journey. Everything has a purpose. Even feeling lost has a purpose. It forces you to take a look at where you are.