The Path Made Clear: Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose(5)
GLENNON DOYLE
I knew I needed a place to tell the truth and I started feeling this invitation to start writing. It felt like an annoying tap from God, saying, Get off the couch and start writing. But I ignored it. So one day I was passing the computer and I saw this thing called “25 Things You Don’t Know About Me.”
My friends were making lists about themselves and I thought, Awesome. I can make a list. So I sat down at the computer and typed my list.
Then, I walked away, and two hours later I came back and my list had been shared all these times and I had twenty-seven new e-mails. I thought, Oh, I really should have read someone else’s list before I did mine. For example, my number six was: I’m a recovering food and alcohol addict but I still find myself missing booze in the same twisted way that we can miss people who repeatedly beat us and leave us for dead.
All of mine were like that. But my friend Sarah’s number six was: My favorite snack food is hummus.
And I wanted to die. I just wanted to take it all back. But then later that night I started opening those e-mails, and they were from people whom I had known my whole life, but I had never really known. Because these emails said things like, Oh, my gosh, Glennon, I just read your list and I’ve been bulimic for twelve years and I’ve never told anyone. Glennon, I just read your list. My husband and I are struggling. We don’t know where to turn. Glennon, I just read your list. My dad’s depressed. And on and on. And I thought, This is interesting. This truth telling is something that can unlock people. I felt connected. Like the real me to the real other people.
Vice President JOE BIDEN
OPRAH: I read that ever since you were a little boy, you had a picture in your head of the kind of man that you wanted to be. Did you live up to your own expectations? Did you fulfill the vision or exceed the vision?
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: By and large I believe that I have ended up being the man I wanted to be, but it wasn’t in terms of accomplishment. Because people usually translate that into, As a young guy, I knew I wanted to be senator. Or, I knew I wanted to be president. But that wasn’t true. What was true was I wanted to live up to my parents’ expectations. And I wanted to be that person that met my mother’s standards. Being defined by my courage. I wanted to be that person who, no matter what happened, just got back up and kept going. I wanted to be that person who was loyal to people who were loyal to him.
WINTLEY PHIPPS
When you watch the things you dreamed of as a kid come to reality, those are moments of destiny. But I’ve realized that moments of destiny are moments for which you were created, but they’re not the reason you were created. The reason for which we were created is to grow every day to more resemble, reflect, and reveal the character of the one who created us. Let me tell you, God is the ultimate dreamer, and when He dreams, He also dreams about us. He dreams about you. He dreams about me. And the most amazing thing that can happen in the life of a human being is to catch a glimpse of what God’s been dreaming for you.
CHAPTER THREE
THE WHISPERS
Passion whispers to you through your feelings, beckoning you toward your highest good.
—Oprah
For me, the early days of 2018 will forever be marked by the devastating mudslides that swept through my community of Montecito, California.
At least twenty-one people perished in the powerful avalanche of earth and debris that surged down the mountains in the aftermath of deadly wildfires and torrential rain. As I watched my neighbors gather to grieve, link arms, and ultimately endure, I was reminded of how, in a flash, your entire life can be changed forever. Natural disasters, illness, accidents, and unexplained events—there are gut-wrenching moments occurring every day that can blindside even the most aware and bring us to our knees.
This experience has heightened my understanding of what “circumstances beyond our control” really means. And it has made me more attuned to what we truly have the power to control.
The mudslides were a phenomenon. There was no way to prevent the catastrophic tragedy that literally came crashing through people’s front doors. But that’s not the case for most personal struggles. Situations like job loss, financial problems, a painful breakup, or a chasm between you and your child might feel like a shock, but they rarely arrive without whispers along the way.
Over the years, I have taken every opportunity I could to share one of my most cherished spiritual principles: Your life is always speaking to you. It speaks in whispers, guiding you to your next right step. And in many situations, the whisper is also the first warning. It’s a quiet nudge from deep within saying, Hmm, something feels off. A small voice that tells you, This is no longer your place of belonging. It’s the pit in your stomach, or the pause before you speak. It’s the shiver, the goose-bumps that raise the hairs on the back of your neck.
Whatever form the whisper takes, it’s not a coincidence. Your life is trying to tell you something.
Heeding these signs can open the doors to your personal evolution, pushing you toward your life’s purpose. Ignoring them—sleepwalking through your life—is an invitation to chaos.
The examples you’ll read on the following pages help illustrate both the miraculous and disastrous outcomes that can occur depending on how you respond to life’s whispers.