A related aspect of vocation that should be obvious - but often isn't - is that, to be happy in our work, we have to accept the gift of who we are:
Today I understand vocation... not as a goal to be achieved but as a gift to be received. Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess... It comes from a voice "in here" calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.
It is a strange gift, this birthright of self. Accepting it turns out to be even more demanding than attempting to become someone else...
Reading this, I think of all the jobs I attempted and left, the jobs I applied for and didn't get, the jobs I never pursued, though I wanted to - and the parts of my work as a teacher that were extremely difficult for me, and the parts I loved.
I also think about a conversation I had with my mother when I was still in high school, applying for my first year at university. Looking at all the programs that the university offered, I was drawn to the study of art...
This is interesting, I told my mother.
That's for people who don't need to earn a living, she replied. You need to study something practical...
And so I studied languages... But now, all these years later, I am still drawn to pottery, quilting, and other tactile (sometimes practical) art.
How would my life have been different if I had studied art instead of languages? I wonder. Would I have been able to earn a living?
Maybe it doesn't really matter what I studied... True - inborn - interests always win out in the end!
Thinking of this conversation with my mother reminds me of the dozens of times I've also urged my children to be "practical" - (for their own good)!! Will they, too, someday think I held them back?!
While we're working on accepting the gift of who we are, can we also accept the gift of who our children are - not just what we want them to be?!
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