November 29, 2025
Today’s post is a poem that accidentally flowed out as I was journaling on the arc of my story so far through 100 Liminal Days. There is something profoundly shifting in my thinking and, surprisingly, it is quite soothing to recognize my mistakes and even ignorance.
This poem I call “I Am The One,” is about recognizing that what is even greater than grasping for truth and attempting to fulfill our purpose is surrendering to our dharma, and acknowledging that the only thing we can actually anchor ourselves to is the present moment. It’s about noticing that we are not missing a single piece of ourselves we call purpose, but instead we are the single piece returning to the whole.
We may start our journey with an immature desire to hold the truth – to discover and fulfill our unique purpose. And actually, even though this particular path is mostly futile, we end up right where we are meant to be anyway. This reality – even with the misunderstandings and missteps along the way – is beautifully captivating me as I continue to surrender another layer.
100 Liminal Days is an experimental project of embracing my current transitional season after exiting my business by sharing an honest, real-time account of my self-initiation experience in daily posts. I’m using The Artist’s Way as a guiding tool, and sending shorter weekly recaps only via my newsletter. Visit Day 1/100 to learn more and sign up to get the weekly recaps delivered to your inbox.
I Am The One
I started on a path with a desire to hold the truth,
To control the outcome because I believed it was mine to choose.
Then, in what I perceived as maturity unfolding within me,
I changed my language to admit:
I must let go of the outcome and see the journey as the gift!
But as I continue to give myself to new levels of surrender,
I see that even that was not the secret whispering in my ear,
Calling me into the wild.
It is not the choice or the journey that materializes in my hand,
Giving me something to hold onto,
Anchoring my soul.
In fact, it hasn’t been about holding truth at all.
All along, it hasn’t been about anchoring to anything either –
Outside of this present moment.
And it’s clear now that even the journey has hardly been mine to choose!
Further, my life’s work is not even about the work!
It is about observing and understanding what I see.
It is about this knowing.
A knowing difficult to put into words, but deeply comforting
Like a wave of peace washing over me.
Like a new love engulfing my mind, body, and soul,
I ask myself with a smile, “Where have you been all my life?”
This knowing is recognition of myself,
Seeing not just who I am becoming,
But who I have always meant to be.
Who I have always been.
Authenticity becomes my aspiration,
To remember who I am.
The very word, “authenticity,” becomes rich with new meaning.
Living authentically might be simply said as “being true to oneself,”
But this doesn’t capture all of authenticity’s glimmering essence.
There’s something else about authenticity that resembles… connection.
A return to the whole.
Here I’ve been thinking the singular missing piece of my life I called purpose
Was something for me to discover and bring into the fold once again,
Like the shepherd risking life and limb to rescue the precious lost lamb.
When actually I am the one, not the ninety-nine.
I am the one reconnecting to the whole.
For all my life that I can remember,
I have been intent on understanding and fulfilling my purpose.
This word, “fulfilling” –
As if purpose is some special life-giving liquid
Dripping, flowing, or crashing into a one-of-a-kind cup with my name etched in the side!
Suddenly, I see this thinking as immature and ignorant.
I’ve spent so much of my life in a pursuit to fill a cup
With a concoction precisely formulated and uniquely mine.
The odds of achieving this are astronomically not in my favor.
Yet even still, this pursuit of my purpose has led me here,
To this present moment of knowing,
This place in time where I quiet the mind
And listen for the whisper.
It’s in this repeating present moment
I give myself completely to my dharma.
A much better word than purpose, by the way.
Purpose speaks to output.
Dharma speaks to destiny.
Within my dharma, I do not hold the ultimate truth.
I do not control the outcome.
And it is not about the fragile journey either.
Fate could interrupt my metamorphosis,
Robbing me of my purpose,
But never of my dharma.
I started on a path with a desire to hold the truth.
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100 Liminal Days is an experimental project of embracing my current transition season after exiting my business. I'm sharing an honest, real-time account of a self-initiation experience following The Artist's Way course in daily posts which are usually 1,500-3,000 words long.
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Wow, this hit home for me. Especially the idea of maturing out of purpose as the goal. Striving for a purpose has felt “off” to me for quite some time, but I hadn’t graduated into a new goal yet. This gave me a lot to think about and felt like it came from a place of deep truth.
Thank you for sharing, Meg. You might like a book I’ve been reading that speaks to this, too – The Great Work of Your Life by Stephen Cope. It is a collection of dharma stories about famous people and regular people, and also weaves in the principles of the Bhagavad Gita. It was through reading this that I began to grok this idea that fulfilling our “purpose” is actually not the ultimate goal. I’m still chewing on these ideas, too. I appreciate your comment!
Purpose is something I can feel occasionally. When I step into ceremony space, when I’m holding space or coaching, or when I’m called to step up to a challenge outside of myself.
It’s wonderful to taste, and feels beautifully aligned. It’s almost like a drug lol I taste it and I want more. But I don’t think we’re meant to taste purpose all of the time. My current theory is that as we flow in our dharma we will have opportunities to taste purpose and capture glimpses of our image that we were born with. Purpose is beautiful, but it’s just one aspect of all that is available for us to experience.
Thank you for sharing this perspective, Andrew! I had always thought of purpose as something I needed to find and fulfill by living in it every day, but I now agree that it is only one part of dharma which I believe is more fluid. Recently, I had a moment where I was doing something very purposeful and aligned for me, and I had this experience of seeing myself and being myself at the same time. It was like my awareness floated up to see a bigger picture. Reading what you had to say about flowing in dharma and occasionally tasting purpose makes me think of that moment. It was just that – a moment of noticing that I was locked into my purpose. Changing my perspective about what purpose really is has brought a feeling of peace that I haven’t known before. I’m thankful for that!
Amber, this really hit home in so many ways. This statement really put my last many years into perspective: …chasing a singular “purpose” to surrendering into dharma. At least, the first part. Having read this, I’m realizing this internal struggle I’ve been grappling with is my dharma trying to be revealed, through an ego(?) that has been trying to lead the way, rather than allowing itself to be led.
I also love when you mention the romance of “the journey” toward a gentler knowing that what we seek isn’t missing in us at all. Instead, we are the “one” returning to the whole.
It’s a coming together of all of our wonderful parts… working as one.
So much to sit with. Thank you for the invitation and the words to guide me along the path… like little bread crumbs guiding my way.
Whitney, I’m glad this feels like guidance on the path for you. You and I are similar – not sitting on our laurels when it comes to making big things happen! That has been a strength that got me to a certain point, but now I see that we can only get so far on our own, and it can be exhausting.
There has to be an element of trust, and therefore courage, to surrender and let God work through us and with us. Our dharma doesn’t happen to us or for us. It happens with us, and with God. All the ingredients for our dharma are already here – we just need to remember who we are, and return back to the whole.
An acorn doesn’t choose to become an oak tree. It doesn’t have to work hard to become what it is meant to be. And in the same way, we can’t push ourselves to become what we were created to be. Our dharma asks for that mix of trust, courage, and action. Then God meets us there with some magic 🙂