Finally, once and for all, I am going to tell you what the purpose of your life is. In some way I feel uniquely qualified. Not because I am old. Not because I am psychic, although I am. And not because I am a tarot card reader, although I practice that also. If you’ve been here long, you know I have been reading the tarot since given a deck in high school…so, going on 60 years. If they’ve taught me anything, it’s how to listen.

Tarot card readers, and psychics, by the way, are simply unqualified counselors. I used to shy away from the younger ones for this reason, wondering how much life experience they could bring to the conversation. I don’t do that anymore. Young people, if paying attention, are sometimes less influenced by the world around them and more present. Young people like Rob Bell, Kyle Cease, Steven Bright, just to name a few readily available to you on social media.

When you make yourself available to new acquaintances under any guise of offering wisdom (as if…) you will find that many people come searching to know their purpose. And so I have been a curious student of this question for decades. And I actually do think i might have some wisdom to offer.

I can absolutely tell you your purpose, but first I must tell you what it is not. Then I will reveal what it is. And then, thirdly, I need to tell you something you need to know that is even more important than your purpose. There is one more important thing.

Firstly, your purpose is not a job. You think you know that. But when you start seeking to know why you are here, you will undoubtedly try to condense your life’s purpose into actionable knowledge – into something to do. It’s the human way, and hence the third point of this soliloquy. So it is important to know the difference between purpose and right livelihood.

Right livelihood is a purposeful way to work, to earn a living, to support yourself. It’s right because it fits you. Like a glove. But there is not one glove for every purpose. You don’t shovel snow in the same gloves you garden in. And so there is never A singular right livelihood for each of us, or for all the stages of life. Right livelihood changes and grows with you.

There are things you love to do and are naturally adept at. Those are passions, and talents. Some are genetic. Some are environmental. All are interesting and fulfilling, even if they do require study and practice. Often those will lead you to right livelihood, to a vocation that is satisfying and contributing. But these are not your purpose.

You – yes, you are a spy. You are a spy for God. For consciousness. If you were born human your purpose is to observe life on the planet earth and report your findings. Specifically to the Akashic Record Department, but simply say to consciousness. Feel free to share generously what you observe. We will all take what we can use. Your purpose is to live in service to the life on the planet, to the living planet itself. So that we may all continue to evolve life here. And developing your skills of observation takes tremendous practice. It will consume your entire life. And it will not come easy.

Here is the third – and most important – thing you need to know: you have been sold a bill of goods about purpose. It’s a cult. You were groomed and inducted before you knew what was going on. You were subconsciously and intentionally indoctrinated into a cultural belief system that convinced you that you had better not miss your purpose. You better find that purpose or you might waste your life. Nothing could be further from the truth. Quite literally, that program was designed to keep you from the truth. It was designed to keep you in slavery. To hustle to survive. You make other people a lot of money that way.

As Gloria Steinem so wisely said, “The truth will set you free. But first it will piss you off.” She understood the assignment.

So…how, exactly do we train to be a spy for God? We pay attention. And we don’t really have much precedence for that, so we must first train ourselves to withdraw our attention from distraction. That means developing a constant daily routine of saying yes and no as consciously as we can. Our days are packed full of choices and decisions. We learn to say no to some, yes to others. We eventually learn to pay attention to our gut instincts. To our intuition. Intuition: the voice of God inside of us. We have to learn to pay attention to our bodies, our internal barometer.

I can use my recent bear encounter as a metaphor. “They” say never to run from a bear. You will not outrun it. You are instructed to stand tall, arms stretched upward and make noise. If it’s a black bear, anyway. I did not do this. I bolted. Of course, I was only several feet from my front door (up a flight of stairs). I did not think. What is thought?! I had no thoughts. I was all reaction. I took those stairs two at a time. I was in the house behind a dead-bolted steel door before it occurred to me that A) I might want to react differently, and B) I took those stairs two at a time! I normally drag my painful creaking knee up one stair at a time ever-so slowly, moaning the entire climb. Would I react differently on a trail through the woods with nowhere to hide? M a y b e…

Another “they” says it is good practice to allow for a little space in your thoughts before reacting. You know…learn to respond rather than react. Maybe next lifetime. Maybe if I’m face to face with a bully. Nah – who am I kidding?! Haaahhahahaaa……