"God calls you to the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet," wrote Frederick Buechner. You're free to ignore that call, of course. You can pretend that you don't really know what brings you deep gladness, and you can act as if the world's deep hunger is of no concern to you. But if you hope to be proud of the life you have lived when, many years from now, you shed your mortal coil, I advise you to at least experiment with using Buechner's formula as a working hypothesis. The coming year will be en excellent time to do just that.
"Dear Rob: I have followed my nose most of my life, weaving from pleasurable diversion to interesting crisis and back. I've honestly had a great time and wouldn't change a thing. But lately I've been getting strong hints from life that maybe the game is changing for me. More and more I'm feeling like the grasshopper in that old fable -- you know, with no resources stored up and winter coming on fast -- while all the steady, hard-working ants are sitting pretty. So here's my question: Do I really have to stop enjoying myself and get down to business, whatever that means? Are there any real jobs for grasshoppers? - Shaky Sagittarius." Dear Shaky: If there will ever in your life be a time when you could figure out how to be both a grasshopper and ant simultaneously, it will be in 2009. Start meditating on how to get the best of both worlds.
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