By In my journey to Mary 2.0 I have been noodling about what I want to do as well as what I don’t want to do with the time I have left on this earth. This isn’t meant to be morbid or a confession of some terminal illness. This is me searching for my “Ikigai”. What is that? Great question!
My guess is that the pandemic has caused many of us to rethink our lives and what we’re doing and to what we devote our time. I’m in the middle of the documentary series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones…and have been scribbling down notes like crazy (and texting my sister with random health and death stats)! One of the first places they visitis an island in Japan with loads of happy centenarians who have Ikigai. Combine that with a sense of community, healthy eating and exercising and low stress to create a recipe for an inspired long life with contentment. Did you have an A-HA moment just reading that? Because having a sense of purpose and being connected to others is what I’m searching for (Of course healthy eating and exercise are on the list too!).
I found this lovely graphical interpretation of Ikigai, essentially it is your sense of purpose. The next few posts will be a deeper dive into each component:
- What the world needs
- What you can be paid for
- What you are good at
- What you love
I intentionally started with What the world needs because it is important that to think outside of ourselves, even though this is a very personal introspective journey. We are extremely blessed in the United State of America, despite what you may read in media/social media. Our definition of hunger is that of a developed country. To be sure, it does exist but more likely for financial reasons (grocery prices going up) – the food is there and may not be affordable vs food is simply not available. There are places on this planet where there isn’t a Starbucks on every corner and a grocery store every mile or so, where fresh water is rare, where parents have to decide which child gets to eat that day. There is a physical need for food that we can help with. And that is where Rise against Hunger comes into play. You can visit their website to learn more about them. They’re attempting to end hunger by empowering communities. Would you like to help?
October 21 is Roswell UMC’s Great Day of Service. RUMC has committed to packaging 15,000 meals in partnership with Rise Against Hunger. I have signed up and hope you will consider joining me that Saturday to pack meals. You can read more about it (and sign up) using the link below. Or host a meal packing event of your own?
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0844A5A82DA2FD0-rise1#/
There’s a long list of what the world needs…So don’t worry if resolving hunger doesn’t speak to your passions. The important take away is to take action. Don’t get so overwhelmed that you do nothing.