What is your calling?

[MsTinkerbelly]

My calling was always taking care of people, and I have done it for most of my life.

I ran residential care facilities and did job support (while working in Aerospace) for people with developmental disabilities, and women with mental/dual diagnosis issues for 26 years.

I cared for a child, 2 spouses and my mother until she died. I now care for assorted critters and my spouse who works from home, an elderly man who needs us, and a partridge in a pear tree. Lol

Our Pastor has asked me to participate in a 3 year program to council other members of the Episcopal faith...but I am pretty sure i have nothing left to give others outside of my family.

So, I am in search of a new purpose...and I have not yet found anything interesting. I'm only 54, and yes I have some limitations...but I'm not ready to curl up and die.

[betruetoyoursoul]

My calling has always been one to nurture as it comes naturally to me. I have had the opportunity to work with many different populations from preschool, K-12, Dementia clients, mental health clients, and so much more...I truly feel blessed.

[Daddislilgrrl]

Hi y'all! Well, my job at 1800flowers.com didn't pan out. They sold out to another company, who laid everyone from 18f off within 6 months. Glad I didn't go, was a gut feeling, ya know?

Now I'm a Tupperware Consultant! I'm having a ball with new people, and new products! What I would love to do is see if I can get 3 people that would like to have an online party with me! Super easy! I set you up, we start the party, and you give your link to everyone you know!

Let me know who would like to be my Hostesses for the month of September!

Thank y'all so much!

Daddislilgrrl (Lisa)

[Gayandgray]

I have always been a caregiver and used to feel that it was my calling. But then when my spouse got sick and had to retire, I got a second job to help cover finances at an animal boarding kennel and LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it!!!!!!!!! I felt that I had FINALLY found my TRUE calling! I worked there a few years and was offered a fulltime job, but I could not afford such a huge pay cut plus they offered no benefits. I hated to quit but the state started paying me to take care of my spouse, who really needed me home more as her health started declining, so I resigned. I keep in touch with my old boss and she and I joke that if we hit the lottery I will quit my job in healthcare and work fulltime at the big kennel she will buy! LOL! Especially as I'm getting older, I feel I relate better to animals than people. And if I didn't have such bad hands I would probably be a dog groomer.

[Chad]

I seem to be a jack of all trades.

My first career was very mechanical and I am good at seeing machinery in motion in my mind.

The environment is my second career and my gift of motion works well with aquatic systems.

My passion is animals. I have always had a gift when it comes to animals wild and domestic.

My life is working out well now. I restore and protect the environment. I am my own best ranchhand because I can maintain all the equipment. I can also tackle plumbing and electrical issues. I can interact with wildlife and domestic animals on my land and in my work.

Now if I could just figure out humans !

[Bubala]

I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up! lol

All jokes aside, I guess after surviving 3 wars on two continents (twice as a civilian child and once as a military officer myself) I guess my calling is to close related to - on one hand ever so nerdy academic study of conflict (high and low conflict, conflict prevention and post-conflict resolution) and on the other hand, simple human ability to bare a witness and tell the story for whatever that means.

It's funny...All I seek in life is peace, but time after time I am still somehow drawn to conflict. The more we know, the less we can do....

[imperfect_cupcake]

I've had a few passions that put me in "the zone" in life:

Photography- my dad taught me and I learned how to work in a dark room since I was 10 (I developed pictures for my dad at his work) -I took it up when I was 13 and loved it until my late 20s when someone stole my 35 mm Nikon, my Ziess Icon 2 1/4 studio camera, and all the lenses and filters. I couldn't replace any of it. I just didn't have the money. So I never got back into it.

Cooking - mom taught me very early and when she got sick I had to start cooking for the family whenever she went into the hospital, when I was 11. But I loved it. I had a professional cooking job in two different restaurants and I loved it. I got so much freedom to invent dishes. But I got fed up with the shit wages and went back to higher paid factory work.

Primatology- I loved this. So much. I wound up going from a 2 month stay in Central America to a 5 month stay because I just wanted to stay on and keep researching. I got offered three different jobs. I was good at it. I picked the wrong job. That's life.

Complaints and Governance officer for mental health - I loved this. I shone like a halogen bulb in this. I got to problem solve, investigate, tell assholes to apologise, mediate, help people, and try to improve national health services. <3

Massage therapy - cause I love reading people's bodies, fixing shit, solving problems, making people feel better, understanding physiology, researching pathology, the comradeship with my fellow therapists and classmates. I love touching stuff and understanding what that means - when I feel it. I love being able to touch a muscle and understand from feel what's going on. I love feeling the body let go cause I did a little trick to fool it's reflexes into releasing. It's like Darren Brown magic tricks on the body. I love understanding what the body is doing by touching it. When I massage I am never, ever anywhere else. I am fully 100% always there, mindful, fully engaged, and always happy/astounded with bodies. I swear, laugh, make jokes, tease people, and make people work with me. I love making people laugh through pain on the table. I adore my patients. <3

[Blade]

I don't know, it hasn't called me yet. I think I will be one of those people who finds my calling later in life, or after becoming a retiree.