Purpose.

If the truth matters to you, you must be comfortable with your own choices and if honor matters to you, you must be willing to fight for them.

I knew my purpose at six years of age and in 56 years that purpose has never wavered. But I have had a purpose many other times, when my creator has brought me to exactly the right place at exactly the right time to make a positive difference in someone else's life. My other, inner purpose has been to find the rthym and reason that some of the beautiful wiring in my brain is askew. Why this illness? Why me? What can I do to change things?

My choices are as many and as varied as the stars, and yet as simple and fixed as my single point of origin. I can choke down handfuls of pills every day because someone says I should-adopt a zombie like state of grace that I will occasionally emerge from and wonder at the purpose of my own existence. Or I can question, and I can make a choice, and I can find an alternative to what 'they' say I should be and how I should live my life.

And I have found another purpose in recovery-I have developed a system that allows me to head off the depressions and the mania and the anxiety.
Most say it is impossible, yet some believe it can be done. I am living proof that if the proper mix of chemicals and the common sense of staying physically healthy can be applied-the terror and pain of bi-polar can be reduced to such a degree that it is no longer the focal point of my thoughts nor the harbinger of death it once was-because I will it not to be.

And that is not smoke and mirrors-it is faith and strength and heart-and not a single, simple purpose-but one of many throughout my life. And the child of six who knew her purpose when she wrote her first story-is still alive and filled with joy-and forever more invincible to an illness that would steal all of this away from me.

You ask for purpose-I give you my truth. And remind you, glok, not to be so dismissive of someone else's purpose.

Thank you for you insight and kind words, Tea&Sympathy.

From GLOCK, in his initial post on this thread:

"What do you think? Have you defined your purpose?"

I think that before we can define our "purpose", we need to come to a reckoning of our NATURE...in other words, WHAT ARE WE??? For example, a pickup truck and a Corvette differ in "nature" because they serve different purposes. So what are we? What is our "nature"? It's the key to our purpose.

If we are simply evolved human animals who once lived in trees and one day learned to walk upright, it doesn't matter that we have emotions, build cities, create music and art, transform the face of the planet and go to the moon....we are still just animals, by nature. We are born, we live, we reproduce, we do whatever we do, and we die. Period. End of story. There is no purpose other than to "be", "do" and "die".

I personally believe (to paraphrase Pierre Teilhard de Chardin) that we are NOT human beings who have the occasional spiritual experience. We are instead SPIRITUAL beings who, from time to time, CHOOSE to have a PHYSICAL experience.

Why? Because it's one thing to know, intellectually, that "water is wet". It's another thing entirely to experience it,... to jump into a mountain stream...to walk in the rain...or in the surf...or sip a cool drink on a hot day.

The questions we should ask ourselves are "Why did I choose to have this experience? What can I learn from it? How will it help me to grow and develop?"

These are basically spiritual questions, and can only be answered within the context of our true nature.