Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
— Mary Oliver
It’s easy to go through life living in the trance of busy-ness, blindly following instructions from emails and to-do lists, lost in the bottomless pit of social media, forgetting what we came for.
If we wait for chance, occasionally something will snap us out of our trance and remind us to check-in, to see if we’re actually on the path we desire.
An intentional life doesn’t wait for a chance reminder.
To live an intentional life is to pause periodically to ask the questions necessary to take control of the wheel and steer the ship of your life.
The Jewish New Year — Rosh Hashana — is a holiday made expressly for this purpose. It comes at an inconvenient time of year — a time busy with end of calendar-year initiatives and deadlines, back-to-school routines, and the everyday demands of life.
That’s the point. The sound of the shofar is meant to interrupt and disrupt, to shake us out of our slumber, to blow away the fog.
The questions reverberate in the wake of silence created by the sound of the shofar.
- Why are you here?
- What is your purpose?
- What do you value?
- How are you living aligned with those values?
- How are you using your time?
What are you doing with your one wild and precious life?
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