Kay:
It’s hump day Questers. Welcome back. We have a great episode for you today and a beautiful quote. It’s December 8th, and this is, as I said, our hump day, our Wednesday episode number 483. Our quote for you today comes from Julia Cameron who’s an American teacher, author, artist, poet, playwright, novelist, filmmaker, pigeon fancier, composer, and journalist. She’s best known for her book, The Artist’s Way, and has also written many other non-fiction works, short stories, essays, novels, plays, musicals. So, one artistic lady.
Shi:
A pigeon fancier. I’m not sure I know what that is, but I look forward to Googling it later. In the meantime, Julia’s quote for us is, “What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.”
Kay:
A pigeon fancier is a pigeon keeper if anybody was wondering. Somebody who keeps and trains pigeons and it’s called pigeon fancying which I had no idea. So, glad to know.
Shi:
I was wondering if it had something to do with training the pigeons because you guys know pigeons can courier messages and stuff. So, very interesting.
Kay:
Weren’t there pigeons in one of the world wars that super helped us turn the tides?
Shi:
I think so. Who knows?
Kay:
What a brave bird! Well, aside from Julia and her pigeoning, this quote that she brings to us is so incredible because what she is telling us is that when we are working within universal alignment, aka at our highest and best good, that the universe really has our back, that God comes behind us and supports us in everything that we do because that work is in alignment with who we are and what our true purpose here on this planet is.
Shi:
I think it’s all really about that human spirit expression, that desire for the soul to grow, to explore, to express that spark of eternal energy made in the likeness of God. Your chi energy, your life source, your electric charge, whatever it is that you want to call it. That spirit and energy that flows inside of you. It’s not really confined by time and space and physical restraints and this month’s budget. It just has a desire to grow, explore, and express.
When we allow it to do that in the confines that we can, that’s when we’ll feel so alive and that’s when, as Julia says we get in alignment and things start happening. Things like doors opening and money coming, and that the sense of purpose and aliveness, I think that those are all wonderful outcomes that we want. But many times, the physical restraints that we put around that spiritual being that just desires to be extensive can really hurt us. The other thing that I wanted to point out here that they love about this quote is that Julia isn’t saying necessarily whatever it is that you really want to do is what you’re supposed to do for your career and get paid for it.
She’s just saying make time in your life to do what is inside of you. Your soul is saying, do that. I love that. I love when we’re writing. I love when we’re traveling. I love when we’re reading. I love when we’re reflecting. I love when we’re creating something or providing opportunities or doing something in a certain way. Listening to that and following that and allowing more room for that in your life, whether it’s in your career or not is just plain good advice.
Kay:
Chances are that that thing that you love to do, the thing that really lights your flame, that takes you on fire is something that isn’t super tangible. You might say, “Well, that’s crazy girls. I love Tiffany and if I just had endless amounts of Tiffany, wearing Tiffany is what I’m really meant to do.” Well, if you’ve got all of the Tiffany in the world and you no longer had any more to obtain, would that really be what you’re meant to do? So, chances are creative expression, artistic expression, that emotion expression, whatever those positive emotions for you, they can be expressed in your work today.
They can be expressed in your chores right now. They can be expressed in your relationship with your family in an hour’s conversation. Like Shila said, it doesn’t have to be like, and that’s your work. If you have work that you’re not necessarily passionate about, there are probably ways that you can express that truest thing that you’re meant to do, which is to love or to be kind, or to empower, to inspire, to grow others or whatever it is. You can do it right now. There’s no reason to wait in that and then work like Julia says, can feel like play to us.
Shi:
I love that and I love that you bring forward this dimension of how do we bring those things that we love into whatever it is we’re doing inside our careers, inside our families, inside our fitness, inside our faith, inside all of the different realms of our lives? Can we be more alive by channeling what it is that we feel compelled to do? Shi here. I love writing. I absolutely love it and I’m pretty darn good at it. I’ve been practicing for a long time, but I’ve loved writing since being a kid. Creative writing was my jam. I loved making stories. I loved telling stories, that’s just always been part of my DNA.
So, that doesn’t necessarily mean that now, if I’m not in a career of being a writer that I’m not fulfilling that passion or pursuing that interest. But what I am doing is within my careers as a restaurant owner, as an entrepreneur, as a curriculum developer, that I gravitate towards writing projects. That I raise my hand for those. That I get excited when there’s something that needs to be done and that I thoroughly enjoy getting to express that desire in that way through the avenue and the channel of whether it’s our family’s Christmas newsletter or major email to a new client or a guest relation email. I really take a lot of joy and pride in writing, and I can find that right where I am without necessarily being a writer as my career.
Kay:
That’s a beautiful example Shi, of how we can really bring this into play and find all of the beauty in the work that we already do. So, as a reminder of what Julia Cameron tells us, “What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.”
Shi:
Alright, that brings you to your quest today and it is a Wondering Wednesday Quest. So, today we want you to take a moment and observe and wonder if you’re doing what it is that you want to do that, that soul is expressing for you. If you are great, give yourself a pat on the back, ask yourself what you could do better. But if not, maybe explore that a little bit. Wonder on that. Why not? What is stopping you? Take a minute to wonder today about this so that you can do a little less work and a little more play. Are you ready?
Kay:
Let’s quest!
