Remembering Your Passion and Purpose

Have you ever asked yourself, “what am I even doing here?” Or, found yourself comparing your life to others and feeling somewhat directionless?  

In this episode, you’ll hear an original poem, “Remembering,” written by Lia Girard, and consider its deeper meaning … while reflecting on your earliest memory of inner joy. Lia offers encouragement to dig “soul-deep” and celebrate what makes you unique. 

Today’s episode invites you to: 

- visualize where you were the first time you felt true inner peace and calm

- consider that memory a pathway to defining your purpose

- give yourself grace to linger in experiences that feel genuinely good to you

You’ll also be given a word, inspired by the poem, to ponder as your week unfolds. 

Lia Girard is a poet, writer, author, wife, and mom whose feature articles are found on iBelieve.com, Crosswalk.com, and other inspirational platforms. 

You can explore her poetry, often inspired by the wonders of nature, on Instagram: @wildpeace.poetry. 

If you love the show, or any episode resonates with you, please rate or review the show on your favorite platform, or email your feedback to lia@wildpeacepoetry.com.

Transcript

Speaker 0:01

Hello, and welcome to Heart of a Wildflower. This is a space that invites you to slow down, reconnect, and find beauty in every season. I'm Lia Girard, your host, and I'm so glad you're here. In each episode, we'll consider an aspect of love, longing, or life, such as heartache, healing, or hope, by reading and exploring a poem together. We'll end with a thoughtful word or phrase to contemplate as your week unfolds. Today, our poem asks you to think back to your earliest glimmer of passion or the first time you felt a quiet joy in your core. Some may call this a flow state. When you're in your flow state, you feel genuinely you on a sublime level, and time passes without notice. Now I also want to say that, believe me, when someone asks me to think back to my childhood or recall my youth, I don't get a warm and fuzzy or happy-go-lucky feeling. I profoundly honor that you may also have very difficult memories and do not want to recall a feeling, but I promise I intend this reflection as a gift to you because I'd love for you to recognize and cherish what makes you unique. It may not be easy to find an early memory that makes you glow from within. But when I was compelled to write a poem about embracing purpose, it was because I was caught up in that depressing quagmire of comparing myself with others. And I needed to dig in. Perhaps you might need it someday too. In the process of closing my eyes and journeying back, I discovered that understanding my inner child can actually stabilize me when I feel I just don't fit in or measure up. When you appreciate who you are in your soul, it's easier to reconcile why you choose the life you do, regardless of what anyone else is doing in their own unique way. Today's poem, titled Remembering, may not describe your own design, but I hope it will ignite a desire for you to recenter and love your own one-of-a-kind passion and purpose. Remembering. Linger in silence alone, being patient with your mind, so it can tunnel soul deep and help you remember who you came here to be. Visualize what you were doing when you felt your first tremor of joy while you were simply being and not fearing in this aperture of time. When I do this, my bare feet are pressed on knotted weeds, my shoulders warm and small, my body is curled in a hug, hoping to serve as sentinel for any nearby caterpillar who might need my protection while struggling along in their journey through the wilderness. Can you visualize an early time when you lost yourself in a moment of tranquility or freedom? Perhaps this memory can be a place you revisit from time to time to rekindle or simply pause and appreciate your own passion and purpose. It can help you answer that sometimes burning question, what am I even doing here? Of course, my story embodied in today's poem is not supposed to be yours by design, and yours is no one else's. When you think back, you may remember feeling at peace in an art gallery or at a crowded sports event or climbing a tree or shaping clay or savoring an ice cream cone on a city street. The possibilities are infinite. And just ask any parent, your natural inclinations show up early. That's the beauty of passion. It's as varied as creation, and it's on purpose. Best of all, it's harmonized into a much bigger picture by a power greater than our own. All flowers aren't tulips, all birds aren't blue, and every season isn't the same around our planet. The same goes for your what am I doing here? It's not supposed to follow someone else's pace or pattern. And it doesn't drop in value when it doesn't look like others. When you spend time envisioning what made you feel genuine and alive, even when you were too young to analyze it, perhaps then you're discovering your purpose. For me, coming from a sometimes frightening childhood marked with physical trauma and emotional abrasion, I found direction in nature. I was always drawn by an inner voice to the tiniest of beings, whether that be caterpillars, wildflowers, ants, or even a squirrel shocked dead by a lightning storm, for whom I made a grass bed in a shoebox, hoping to bring it back to life. True story. And this passion of mine is why I lose track of time taking macro photos of wild things, pulling in super close to absorb their composition. It's why I hear music in just a few words and spend time weaving them together. Today or sometime this week, maybe you can create some margin to follow your earliest memory regardless of any childhood pain. Focus in on the sights, the sounds, the temperature, timing, surroundings, everything that made you feel like you were right where you were meant to be. If you want to, go there now. Whenever you do. I hope you explore that moment to help define your passion and remind you of your purpose. Yours may have grown into teaching, hiking, parenting, cooking, ministering, singing, building, diving, or any of the millions of meaningful pursuits. Whatever it is, no matter how different or ordinary it may be, please feel free to own it, hug it, nurture it, let it develop from seed to fruit, drawing in support from the universe to be your own important part of the miracle of life. As we close, I'd like to leave you with a word from the poem to ponder. And that word is linger. How does this word feel to you? Does it make you nervous? Do you feel it's wasteful to linger? Does it feel irresponsible? Or do you know that you'd love to linger in a way you enjoy? Or do you already? Personally, I think lingering, which is not the same as ruminating, is an act of love. It says, This occurrence is worth my time and attention. Lingering may offer you a taste of what is sacred to you. If you feel drawn to slow down and soak up an experience or a sight this week, even if it takes your focus off a task at hand, give yourself grace. Let a bit of lingering patiently shape who you are. Thank you for spending this time with me today. I hope it offered you room to reflect and reconnect with yourself. If this episode spoke to you, please share it with a friend or drop me an email at lia@wildpeacepoetry.com. You can also find my poetry and message me on Instagram : @wildpeace.poetry. Until next time, keep blooming in your own wild and wonderful way.