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The Calling, one of the Twelve Days for the Thriving of Life on Earth

by Jim Highland

We’ve all had moments when we feel like a cog in a machine. Someone is pressuring us to do something, and we pressure others, and things move around, but it’s uninspiring and life gets dreary or downright bitter. A calling is when something take hold of us and we get energized by it even if we aren’t exactly sure what it entails or how we’ll do it, or if others will think we’re crazy. We just feel called to do something: big or small. That’s part of how this Twelve Days for the Thriving of Life on Earth idea came to me. I wasn’t expecting it. I was going through the “holidays” and the crazy thought occurred to me that folks who care about the environment and all life on earth need to a celebration and revitalization around the same time of year as the other holidays. It seemed…kind of crazy, but I kept coming back to it. As I said in last month’s issue, this holiday would begin on the Winter Solstice (which is either December 21^st or 22^nd, depending on several things including if it’s a leap year), and continue for about twelve days to end on New Year’s Day. Here’s how I set it out:

The Twelve Days for the Thriving of Life on Earth

Winter Solstice (Dec. 21/22): Silence and Grandeur

December 23rd: Calling

December 24^th: Vision/Dream

December 25^th: Life

December 26^th: Unity, Respect and Justice

December 27^th: Self-Determination and Dignity

December 28^th: Collective Work, Responsibility

December 29^th: Cooperative Economics

December 30^th: Recovery of Community Purpose

December 31^st: Creativity, You being You

January 1^st: Faith and Love

Last month, I wrote about the first day(s), Silence and Grandeur. This month, I’m writing about the next day, Calling.

December 23^rd: Calling

So, you spend a day or two (depending on when the Winter Solstice happens) taking in the grandeur of life, keeping silent and relaxing with what comes to you. Next, for the day of Calling, you want to start listening carefully. Out of the silence, pay attention for a calling. Something indistinct that catches your attention, like a glitter of sunlight or a fleeting shadow. You don’t know what it is, but it is something to which you are drawn. This is not like caving in to the responsibilities that others are pushing on to you. You got away from that yesterday. This isn’t about advancing your career, or someone else’s career. This isn’t about making progress for some big agenda that other people, or even you, set out for some weeks, months or years ago. This is just for right now. What are you called to do? Listen more carefully.

What does it mean to listen more carefully? That’s a good question. I used to hear people say that and think “my ears are open, I’m hearing everything,” until I realized…there was more. The sounds vibrating on my ear drum may be the same, but when I’m watching my team try to make it to the playoffs, or to the Superbowl, most of those sounds aren’t getting attention. My ear is hearing them, but I’m not listening to them. Listening is dependent on your focus and concentration. For some people, one of the easiest sounds to hear is a set of keys hitting the floor. Can’t loose my keys! When I hear that familiar crash, everything else has to stop. Where are my keys?! For some, it’s the sound of loose change falling. This isn’t quite like that. You don’t have it worked out yet. Something is trying to get your attention and now you need to “sharpen your ears” and listen carefully. When I was in a high school orchestra, the conductor was having us tune our instruments, and at a certain point, we felt like they were good. But she said, you need to listen closer. I’m going to play this note. Listen to it carefully, then play the note on your instrument and listen to it, very carefully. If she hadn’t been so serious, I might have laughed out loud. How am I going to hear anything different than I did before. But I tried it, and after a little time, I could hear something different in the way my note played, how it started and how it ended, compared with hers. It wasn’t quite in tune with hers. But I had to concentrate. I had to reach out to get clarity. The calling often comes without clarity, and you have to spend time actively trying to find that clarity.

Give yourself time to see if it is going to be revealed for what it is. Try not to force anything, and don’t let someone else try to tell you what it is. There is an element of need behind this calling, a need that you feel personally, but others may not feel at all. Something is wrong; something or someone is suffering or confused or bitter or lonely. Something is out of place. Something has been forgotten or misused. The normal ways of doing something just aren’t working well, and you feel the need for something else. Something needs to break the surface and get into the light of the sun. Give it time to show itself. As it takes shape, stay loyal to what it is, where it comes from. Maybe it’s something you’ve sensed before but have been avoiding. Maybe it’s something you feel needs to be expressed, or helped, or reshaped or reimagined. Maybe you just want to do something and you’re not sure why. You go to see pets at the humane society. You call or write or email someone you’ve lost touch with. You go look at the stars. You watch a movie you’d forgotten about years ago. You write a song and sing it, whether others want to hear it or not. (Okay, maybe don’t sing it 24 hrs straight; but when you’re walking in the woods or the park, let it out.) Whatever it is, it’s not a whim. You aren’t just randomly doing weird stuff. You feel pulled to it. It makes you laugh to think that you’re supposed to be doing something else right now, but you feel drawn to this and you are curious and energized by it.

But what if nothing’s calling me? Remember that if nothing in particular is calling you, that’s not a bad thing. Maybe, just maybe, it’s not time. What’s bad is forcing yourself to pretend something is calling you. Like saying, “I really want to be excited about helping at the soup kitchen” when you really don’t want to go. Just don’t go. Let someone down, and be honest about it to yourself and to them. “I can’t help out tonight; please find someone else this time.” If today turns into another day of just relaxing in silence, so be it. Remember that you can burn yourself out trying to help everyone who wants your help; doing all of the things that individuals and groups encourage you to do. They may be good things, but at the end of the day, people don’t want you burning yourself out. If you’re sticking with activities that drain your energy and emotion, you’re taking the place of someone else who might get really excited about it. Make way for those folks.

But every so often, actively listen for a call. Now and again, see if something comes to you that you don’t need large doses of caffeine to contemplate. Once you get the faintest sound of it in your ears, push other things aside and investigate it. If you are a writing person, write about it. If you are a talker, talk about it, either to yourself, or to someone who won’t get too freaked out by what you’re saying. You could talk to your pet dog or cat; they’d probably get a kick out of it…or think you’re going to give the food. When the seed catches the scent of a good rain or the glow of the sun, it can start to reach out. Be like a seed hearing it’s now time to grow.