What's my cosmic job?

Lately I have been looking for a job. The term ended at the college where I was teaching part-time, so now once again I am job hunting. As a writer with a Ph.D, in English, I can never decide if I want a full-time job with insurance that will keep me from doing much writing, or if I want to slog away at a part-time job with no insurance that will allow me, in some ways, to have a higher quality of life and time to write.

Then, beyond that surface concern is a bigger question: What is my cosmic purpose? There is a book called Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss, who also wrote Anatomy of the Spirit among other things. In this book, Caroline, who is a theologian and a medical intuitive, says that we all have a sacred purpose we can't deny. Her book is designed to help people find out what their sacred contract, their raison detre might be. While I did read the book, the complex system of archetypal symbolism was daunting, and I don't know that I found out enough about my cosmic purpose to actually make a cosmic resume or to become perfectly fulfilled living out the universe's dream for me.

So what to do? One technique that has worked for me in the past, and that I still practice is the 25 wish inventory. What you do is write a list of 25 wishes as fast as you can. The first ten are easy and end up being wishes for more money, the health of my family, or universal health care - you know the easy things we think of when we are articulating our desires. But after number ten, it gets more difficult. I find myself writing that I want to learn more about woodworking, that I want to become a better mom, that I want to finish my play, or that I just want to spend more time with the people that I care about. Every month or so, I write a new list in my journal, and it is interesting to see how my wishes shift over time. It is also revealing to look at the patterns charted in my lists. I find myself repeating my desire to learn woodworking, to write more, to travel more, and to love more. My lists don't tell me anything I don't already know, but they are a simple way to articulate my current passions and to map my enduring passions. I challenge you to try it, and let me know what you learn. I will make a list too. Maybe together we can make those cosmic resumes tangible.