What is mine to do—when the world feels loud, divided, and uncertain?

Not everything. Not what belongs to others. Just what is mine.

There is a saying that makes a lot of sense to me: Live and let live. The saying is old and comes from the Dutch proverb “Leven ende laten leven,” which was recorded as early as 1622 by Gerard de Malynes in his work, The Ancient Law-Merchant. It was later adopted into English as a principle of tolerance in 17th-century merchant philosophy. In general, it means to give others who are different from us a wide berth of acceptance because that creates harmony among us.

I cannot change the laws of a nation, but I can change the moment someone stands in front of me.

We all keep a “to-do” list. But what we place on that list deserves a closer look.

After graduate school, we settled in our new town and became part of a small community. One day, a well-known businessman, raising funds for a local charity, visited me at my office to ask for my donation. He told me the following: “This is a worthy cause, and if you contribute to this charity, it will help pay your 'civic rent.'” In the past, I had been only a student, not a professional in the work community, so I had no idea what “civic rent” meant.

How do we know what our specific purpose is? Some of us know it from childhood, others by the teen years, and others in young adulthood. It can be a struggle to find… especially when the ego has its ideas of what our purpose needs to be. I recall being in graduate school and dissatisfied with my course of studies. It was interesting, but it did not touch me at the deepest level. 

The purpose of our life is not one goal; it is not about the end game or the bottom line. Our purpose is who we are. It is at the core of our identity, our spirituality, and our destiny. It is integral to the “why” of our existence. Our purpose is to express the aspect of the Divine we were created to express. If we live in this expression, we know deep down that we are on the right track. If we feel unaligned with our purpose, or if we do not know it, fragmentation and dissatisfaction linger. Many of us in that situation jump from one line of work, hobby, or relationship to another. Or if we settle on one, but do not really feel “at home” with it, we develop impostor syndrome—never feeling authentic.