What is your calling?

[Chad]

I seem to be a jack of all trades.

My first career was very mechanical and I am good at seeing machinery in motion in my mind.

The environment is my second career and my gift of motion works well with aquatic systems.

My passion is animals. I have always had a gift when it comes to animals wild and domestic.

My life is working out well now. I restore and protect the environment. I am my own best ranchhand because I can maintain all the equipment. I can also tackle plumbing and electrical issues. I can interact with wildlife and domestic animals on my land and in my work.

Now if I could just figure out humans !

[Bubala]

I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up! lol

All jokes aside, I guess after surviving 3 wars on two continents (twice as a civilian child and once as a military officer myself) I guess my calling is to close related to - on one hand ever so nerdy academic study of conflict (high and low conflict, conflict prevention and post-conflict resolution) and on the other hand, simple human ability to bare a witness and tell the story for whatever that means.

It's funny...All I seek in life is peace, but time after time I am still somehow drawn to conflict. The more we know, the less we can do....

[imperfect_cupcake]

I've had a few passions that put me in "the zone" in life:

Photography- my dad taught me and I learned how to work in a dark room since I was 10 (I developed pictures for my dad at his work) -I took it up when I was 13 and loved it until my late 20s when someone stole my 35 mm Nikon, my Ziess Icon 2 1/4 studio camera, and all the lenses and filters. I couldn't replace any of it. I just didn't have the money. So I never got back into it.

Cooking - mom taught me very early and when she got sick I had to start cooking for the family whenever she went into the hospital, when I was 11. But I loved it. I had a professional cooking job in two different restaurants and I loved it. I got so much freedom to invent dishes. But I got fed up with the shit wages and went back to higher paid factory work.

Primatology- I loved this. So much. I wound up going from a 2 month stay in Central America to a 5 month stay because I just wanted to stay on and keep researching. I got offered three different jobs. I was good at it. I picked the wrong job. That's life.

Complaints and Governance officer for mental health - I loved this. I shone like a halogen bulb in this. I got to problem solve, investigate, tell assholes to apologise, mediate, help people, and try to improve national health services. <3

Massage therapy - cause I love reading people's bodies, fixing shit, solving problems, making people feel better, understanding physiology, researching pathology, the comradeship with my fellow therapists and classmates. I love touching stuff and understanding what that means - when I feel it. I love being able to touch a muscle and understand from feel what's going on. I love feeling the body let go cause I did a little trick to fool it's reflexes into releasing. It's like Darren Brown magic tricks on the body. I love understanding what the body is doing by touching it. When I massage I am never, ever anywhere else. I am fully 100% always there, mindful, fully engaged, and always happy/astounded with bodies. I swear, laugh, make jokes, tease people, and make people work with me. I love making people laugh through pain on the table. I adore my patients. <3

[RockOn]

helping the abused, pushed aside, forgotten ones .... pit bull and pit bull mix breeds .... or really any dog suffering hardship

[candy_coated_bitch]

My calling is definitely to be an artist. What the looks like on a given day varies, but I always eventually return to the art.

[grenade]

I'm a nuturer. I work with adults with intellectual delays. I make them happy. They make me happy. Win/win. Except it drains me. I get too emotionally involved. I would prefer to have an occupation that would use more of my creativity and artistic ability. I have to pay bills though.

[JDeere]

I am still trying to figure out my calling, I don't really want to be a grown up but it is time.

[Blade]

I don't know, it hasn't called me yet. I think I will be one of those people who finds my calling later in life, or after becoming a retiree.

[Soft*Silver]

Five years ago I posted I was running a plus size women's clothing store. Wow. That seems so long ago. I have opened it, ran it, got run down running it, closed it and went back to being a mental health therapist for children. I love this job but I am feeling unsettled, like there is something else I am suppose to be doing. Perhaps in 2017 I will figure out what that is suppose to be...

[homoe]

I wished I had been a teacher! I'm not sure if I got the calling or not ..perhaps I just didn't hear it............

[cinnamongrrl]

Originally Posted by homoe

I wished I had been a teacher! I'm not sure if I got the calling or not ..perhaps I just didn't hear it............

It's never too late!!

[Breathless]

I absolutely LOVE this thread!
My passions and my calling are very intertwined. I have held many different positions in my life thus far, my bestie often teases me about when am I going to make up my mind and stick with something, and the truth is.. probably never! I really do enjoy the change.
I worked to survive from a young age, using the skills learned from my Aunt and Oma working in restaurants to make rent money while in highschool, developing my love for the kitchen and creating dishes. From there I went to nursing school, graduated and worked in 2 different positions - one in hospice and the other with developmentally delayed youth. A few years in and I had an accident at work with a client that almost took my ability to walk. So after healing from the surgeries I had to find a new purpose. Great sense of direction and knowledge of the city I live, I went into courier business, then drifted to limo and taxi, including dispatch. Yes, I enjoy driving This is where I currently am, and it is paying for my education in teaching braille. I am fluent and can't wait to start! This I feel is my calling. I have done work in Guatemala that has changed my life, and I can't wait to get back to the little people in the orphanges and seniors who make my heart sing!
I am also very crafty and plan to teach the kids who are interested some of the skills that I have to help secure their futures.