This is not my story but, rather, a story that pertains to all of us. As we all try to manage our lives on our personal journey – the struggles and challenges that confront us – unbeknownst to us, there is a higher purpose to our daily existence. A far greater calling. But we cannot see past the grind of daily life, much like the forest for the trees. We are all too consumed with the minutiae in our own lives, dealing with our own needs, desires and problems to rise above and see the bigger picture. But there is a path we all slowly forage ahead on, day by day, month by month, year by year. It is our path to enlightenment. An ultimate destination; our end game where we achieve nirvana.

But this does not happen rapidly. It is a craft that takes longer than any of us can imagine, especially in our modern world where we all seek out the shortcut or the quick fix to the solution. Their is no easy remedy here – no fast lane on the super highway of life, no one to bribe, no get rich scheme – to advance higher. Our path to total enlightenment has to be played on a level playing field with no favoritism for the elite and cannot be attained in a week, a month or even years. Indeed, it is said our path cannot be discovered over the course of one lifetime but rather many lives. Lives built upon succession, one after another, where we continue to hone our talents, strength and character as we evolve and churn higher and higher.  There will be detours, forks in the road, tangents and setbacks but ultimately our overall trajectory will be onward and upward.

Look around you inquisitively – your friends, family, neighbors – then look in the mirror. We all bring a unique ID to the universe, blessed with glorious talents, qualities and love. It is extraordinary when you take the time to analyze how special each of us are. We all possess traits that are natural strengths but there are flaws too – weaknesses that may not be obvious at first blush. No one is perfect. But that is precisely the point because if you were perfect, you would have achieved the heightened state of enlightenment and progressed onward already. The essential purpose of your current life is to highlight a deficiency and focus on reconciling it. There’s just one problem: none of us are born with a user manual or imprint stamped on our forehead explaining our mission. There is no self checklist nor is it blatantly obvious to anyone else. It is a journey of discovery that each of us must tread and deal with in our own unique way.

Many of us will fail, and therefore return with the same mission in the next life, but empowered with greater wisdom and heightened awareness.  Many of us will then subsequently focus greater attention and highlight this quality in our life experiences and slowly work to succeed in mastering it. It is a slow, grinding process with numerous peaks and valleys, ebbs and flows. But regardless of time, effort and energy expended we are all, unknowingly, striving to resolve it in our daily interactions and gravitate towards our higher calling.  It is not a sprint nor a race where we are competing with others but rather our own unique journey.