Having a Purpose

I'm never going to change the world, much as I would like to. My voice will only be heard when joined with others in support of or against issues. I am lucky that I can also support financially & through volunteering. I hope significant change will come, but I probably won't see it. I do think it is important not to simply passively watch on the sidelines though. We all need to engage & have purpose.

In the same way I probably won't be around to see the garden I am creating fully grown. Trees, shrubs & plants take time to establish. Some will flourish, some will not & will have to be replaced with better choices. This, probably my final home, has given me purpose for 3 years now. It hasn't been easy, but it has been interesting & I have learned a lot from the process. My garden will supposedly take another 3 years to reach a reasonable condition. Trees take a lifetime.

Although I don't have the energy or physical capacity that I once had I am quite computer literate. I doubt that I would have been able to plan & manage a big building project & create a reasonably sized garden from scratch if I hadn't been able to research & order the hundreds of things necessary online. My computer is my lifeline & my life is on it - literally.

We all age & have to adjust to ageing. It really isn't easy. I have come to realise that it is really important to maintain social interactions & interest in other people & things. The body may start to fail, but if you are lucky enough to still be compos mentis you do need stimulation & purpose. We all need to be engaged in life & having a purpose is integral to that.

The difficulty is finding something that does give you purpose. Hitherto I haven't found that difficult. But I have known quite a few people in my life who have found retirement, ageing & the loss of a loved one incredibly hard to deal with. It isn't necessarily only a problem for the elderly. I can also remember young people who suffered from depression, isolation, rootlessness & lack of purpose. It can be like a disease & is very difficult to cope with on your own.

In some ways I dislike the current obsession with "mental health". That doesn't mean I don't think it is hugely important. I would simply like far more focus on providing effective & timely professional help for people suffering from mental ill health. I don't find the emotional outpouring of very personal & private issues from people in the public eye moves us forward very much. I'm not sure it actually helps them either. 

We live in an age of opportunities unknown in my youth. It is also currently a very unstable world with many serious problems. Apathy will not rescue humanity from war, famine, pestilence & climate change. There isn't going to be a second coming of a messiah to rescue us. We all need to be engaged in sorting out the world we have created. 

We all need a sense of purpose.