I am reading, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.  I read a few blogs, and one of them is by Buz McGuire. (You can find him on Facebook.) He wrote about this book and when I responded to it, he highly recommended that I read it. He said that it seemed to fit in perfectly for me right where I am.So I ordered the book from Amazon.  It arrived yesterday and I started to read it this afternoon. It is a fictional work, but Buz is right. It fits in perfectly with where I am as I consider living my purpose.You see, I have always believed from my earliest recollection that we all have a purpose. Or mission, if you prefer that word. We all have a “job” to do here on this planet that only we can do. I believe that I have done a pretty good job of living my purpose…as far as I have understood it. In my 20’s and 30’s, I did my best, but never stopped to discover who I was or what I really wanted to do with my life. I pretty much did what was expected of me, what my parents said was a good thing to do, or what my husband wanted.In my 40’s, I questioned the status quo. My husband said I had a mid-life crisis. Perhaps. What I did do was to listen to my body, listen to my dreams, listen to my hopes, and listen to my spirit. And then I made changes in my life to reflect what I heard. Those changes included a divorce. My husband was a good man. He was the same man that I married. I changed and he did not care to come along with me. So he divorced me.And now I am in another time of reflection.  My life has changed once more and I am taking the time to find out who I am, what I want to do and where I will go. I do know that I am actively involved in life. I love my life. And my life is taking a new direction. I am still a nurse. I am still a massage therapist with a private practice. However, I am also writing now. I intend to be published. I hope to inspire others to thrive and to love and to grow.So back to purpose. Do we have just one purpose on the planet? Do we just have one purpose that is continuous throughout our lives? Based on my life, I would say that my purpose has had a continuous thread, but the way that purpose manifests has changed with the stage of my life. What do you think?

I am writing a book named The Gift in Adversity.  The first chapter is based on my life’s experiences and I hope to interview others like me who have been through tough times and come out the other side in a positive fashion.  I hope to have an article published early in 2010 in a local magazine.  From there, I hope to be published in a national magazine.  And I will be writing the book as I go.

If you or someone you know has been given “lemons” in life and made “lemonade” instead of curling up in a ball and giving up, please let me know.  I would love to hear that story.

You see, in 1990 I had everything that I had ever dreamed of.   I had two beautiful children, a home, a husband, a career that I loved, a cat, and yet something was missing.  I wondered how my life could possibly be lacking since I had everything.  And three weeks later, my daughter died.  She was 5 months old when she went down for a nap and never woke up.  They called it Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).  At autopsy they found brain damage in the breathing center in her brain.  She was a big baby (8 pounds, 12 ounces) and this little woman was unable to deliver her the usual way.  Her head was caught up on my pelvis and the doctor used forceps in an attempt to deliver her vaginally instead of doing a C-section.  That attempt was unsuccessful and I had the C-section anyway.  My little baby girl had black eyes for 3 weeks.  Although nobody would confirm this, I believe that the forceps caused the brain damage and ultimately took her life.  She had no risk factors for SIDS and we were both healthy.

From this experience I reevaluated my life, made major changes and went on to thrive.  And this is what I want to talk about in my book.  My daughter’s death was devastating to me, and it was also a wake up call.  I was living the life that my parents and my husband chose for me and I had never stopped to find out what I wanted out of life.  I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up!  The gift that Mandy gave me with her death that I’m not sure she could have given me with her life is this:  Life is short.  Live it out loud and make the best of it.  I believe that we all have a mission to do with this life that nobody else on the planet can do.  I have found that mission and am now living it.  I am so very grateful to her for this gift.

Please feel free to comment here and/or to contact me personally with your story.  My email is thegiftinadversity@gmail.com.

Pam