Purpose.
This November, I spent an incredible week exploring purpose with Chip and Richard Leider and a group of amazing souls led by Thérèse O’Neill, who is a magnificent facilitator and teacher, and Caitlin Allen, our expert experience facilitator. Our week was a joyous exploration of some of the content we created for purpose over the years at MEA and testing some of the new content we have created for next year’s purpose pillar and core curriculum. The week was deep, provocative and creative. We explored the nature of purpose and our own individual purposes and found dozens of ways to learn from each other on our purpose journeys, we even did some art, drawing, dance and moving our way to clarity.
I learned so much from the group and gained some wisdom nuggets I will never forget; gems like “you make an impact wherever you land” and my favorite from one of next year’s teachers Brett Pyle who shared this EB White quote “I arise in the morning torn between the desire to save the world and savor the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” I felt that one in my bones.
Many weeks, we create prompt poems - this week’s poem is dedicated to the wonderful 'Porpoises of Purpose’ cohort (it is a long story involving way too many cetacean gags on my part).
Purpose
The chair stared
Straight backed and flat
Unamused by the confusion.
‘Purpose is so simple,’
It creaked in wooden tones
‘Trust and people will sit upon you.’
And the person,
with their multiple limbs
and quick thoughts stared,
‘I am no chair,
I am no trajectory or equation
Not a box to be ticked into intention;
I am a tree,
I am a porpoise,
I am the breeze
And as the sun meets me
I move and bloom
As a mother,
A lover,
A brother,
A question,
An echo,
A verse,
Today I am an old pair of slippers
Tomorrow I am a container
A diaper,
A star,
A place to eat,
And yes, sometimes,
I am a seat
I am an answer
To the proposals life makes
And my purpose is found
In the song of my ways
And my ways are the song
That sings through my days
And always
I long for that song
To be sweet.’
-Jeff
Jeff Hamaoui is a co-founder of MEA and Regen Communities and an entrepreneur, sage, wit, and poet.
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