A life of purpose

 
    A few weeks ago, my girls and I watched "The Sound of Music".  We love that movie and have watched it together countless times.  Even after viewing it so many times though, there was something new that struck me this time.  Captain Von Trapp, while talking to his new fiancée, the Baroness, says, “Activity suggests a life filled with purpose.”  That Captain is as wise as he is dashing!  He is explaining why he attends party after party in the city when he is really much happier out in the country in his own home.  I could relate, not because I have a beautiful estate out in the country where I like to relax after weeks of partying but because as I look around me at other people and their busy, seemingly exciting, lives and I compare them to my own life of changing diapers, refereeing childish arguments, and trying to stay on top of the inevitable messes in my house, well… I can see his point.   I’ve been pondering the Captain’s bit of wisdom for weeks now, looking at my life.  I have to remind myself, often that God has blessed me with this life, with a vocation to marriage and motherhood and that this is what my life means.  This is where I serve God and find holiness.  It may not be exciting, but it does have meaning.  It is in wiping the table over and over that I learn persistence.  It is in changing diapers that I learn selflessness.  It is in sacrificing salon trips and manicures that I learn detachment and gratitude for what I do have.  It is in refereeing my children’s disagreements that I learn patience and mercy. 
    I continue to struggle some days, wishing the activities of my life suggested more meaning, but at the same time trying to find peace in the purpose my life does have.  My husband says, "Sometimes activity distracts one from their purpose in life."   Maybe he is even wiser than the good Captain in "The Sound of Music".  For, it is a life of repetition and monotony that all great holy monasteries and convents encourage.  It was lives of sacrifice and uniformity that led some of the greatest saints to heaven.  Perhaps my life of monotony and repetition will lead me there as well...