Follow Your Bliss...

We were talking at dinner last night, and Dave brought up the subject of how a nearby town is fining homeowners if their sidewalks aren't shoveled. He suggested to Jake and Sam that it would be a great money-making business...to head to that town with some shovels and clear people's sidewalks so that they don't get fined.

I asked J&S if that was something they were interested in. They were like, "Um...not really." (They already do quite a bit of shoveling-for-money here at home!)




Dave was a bit surprised that they would pass up on a large amount of money, and then the conversation shifted to doing work *just* for money vs. doing work because it's your passion (and you get money from doing your passion!).




I said to Dave, "Ya know...Jake having his job at the library is no accident. He has always LOVED libraries, and even this particular job within the library is perfect for him because he doesn't want to deal with the public."

Jake got very excited and confirmed my comments with this: "Yes!! I honestly remember when I was little, being in the library and thinking about how I would love to work there. AND I clearly remember when we were listening to *The Book Thief*, and they were talking about repairing books, I thought, 'I would love to do that!'"

And that's exactly what he's doing now. His book-shelving job has been extended into book-repairing and he just loves it. He loves touching the books, holding them, contemplating their titles, admiring their covers...and he loves the little treasures that he finds *in* books sometimes, and he imagines the stories behind the object and the person who left it in the book. He gets to put his music on and be in his own beautiful world of books while he's repairing...and his job is his passion ~ a little piece of heaven for which he gets paid.


I also remembered a similar story ~ one day when we were in Jake's library (way back ~ when he was much younger!), I was talking with the young woman who was doing the children's programs as she was at her desk, cutting things out and gluing things for her program. I said to her (and sincerely meant it!), "*I* want a job where I get paid for playing with paper and scissors and glue!!!"

My own children's library program *came into my life* not much longer after that declaration to the Universe.



So our dinner conversation (well...one of the many dinner conversations we had last night...as we have so many every night!) was really lovely, with my children knowing without a doubt that BECAUSE they are living a life directed by their hearts and their passions, the doors will open for them to paths of opportunities that they/we may not even have known existed...

"Follow your bliss.
If you do follow your bliss,
you put yourself on a kind of track that has
been there all the while waiting for you,
and the life you ought to be
living is the one you are living.
When you can see that,
you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss,
and they open the doors to you.
I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid,
and doors will open where you
didn't know they were going to be.
If you follow your bliss,
doors will open for you
that wouldn't have opened for anyone else."
~ Joseph Campbell

(Art copyright © Jake O)

Oh, how I Love this radical life that allows our children to know this to be
True.




Love,
Anne
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((¸¸.·´ ..·´ All is Well. -:¦:-
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