A Purpose Filled Life

I was certain when I was eleven years old I knew exactly how my life was going to be when I grew up.  I was crazy about animals at the time and just knew I wanted to be a veterinarian. Stray critters wandered into my home and stayed for a while.  Over the course of the years I managed to gather two dogs, a few cats, a pigeon, a few rabbits, some quail, turtles, tropical fish and an odd hamster or two...of course not all at the same time.  But as the song goes, "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"...

No, I never got around to following that dream but there were other adventures waiting to take it's place.  I enjoyed a variety of jobs from retail to insurance to radio advertising.  I spent time living down south as well as out west and a few towns in between.  I've climbed a mountain and stood inside a volcano.  I've even gotten married (and divorced) and had a child I'm proud to call my son.  It's pretty obvious, even to me, that I have had an interesting life and yet I still think the best is yet to come.

I moved to this town twenty years ago and twelve years ago I devoted my life to martial arts.  I was in a really bad spot in my life at the time and it was my lifeline back from the spiritually dead.  I poured my energy into TaeKwonDo when I didn't have the energy to exist anywhere else.  I had a purpose and I have tried to repay my Master Instructor over the years for literally saving my life as he did.  

Prior to two years ago I never would have guessed I would return to my writing roots.  Such a dream would have been as foreign to me as trying to roller skate (and if you knew me better, you would KNOW what an impossibility THAT is...;~)

But again, life happened when I was busy making other plans, and I have discovered another purpose for my existence.  There was a time when I thought there could only be one great passion at a time in a person's life but this past year has proven that theory wrong.  Not only did I manage to achieve my goal of reaching Fourth Degree Black Belt at my school (and the highest ranking female in our organization, not counting one of the school owners), but I rekindled my passion for writing and oh, what a year it has been!

Now, when I am about to say goodbye to 2012,  I make plans to greet the new year...full of excitement and full of purpose.  I can only hope that through both my martial arts and my writing I get a chance to bring a little inspiration to someone else who might be searching for the purpose in their own lives....

How about you?

Is the new year going to be one of grand adventures and surprising events?  Have you made a list, like I have, of the goals you would like to accomplish in 2013? When you look back on this past year, do you see a life filled with purpose or just some dull existence?  If you're a writer then I can already answer that question for you.  As Willy Wonka would say..."we are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams"

Let us all dream up a FABULOUS new year...