Destiny Orientation Redux

This picture was taken over two years ago ~ and used in my blog at that time as well. Finding the image again, I chuckled. How far ~ and not ~ I've come in these past nearly two and a half years!

Running around the tech floor of a building, I spotted this sign on the wall outside a computer lab. On my first pass, the words didn't immediately register... until I swept into the office where I'd been headed. Upon leaving the office, I determined I'd get a picture of the sign.

Destiny Orientation? What in the world was that? Whenever I recall the sign, I grin and shake my head. But it makes me think as well. Do we need an orientation for our destiny? How do we know what our destiny is? Can someone else orient us? or tell us what or where or with whom we are destined to do or be? How long does the orientation last?

For the past two and a half years, my destiny has been pointing to an upcoming moment. My orientation has been a compass point ~ the 'due north' direction of retirement. However, retirement is not in itself a destination. It's a rite of passage, a gateway to the next phase of life. As with all rites of passage, we see it on the horizon long before we arrive. And we have a need to ritualize it, to make the passage a sacred one.

My entire life is focused on ~ as with most of us ~ living into my destiny. My definition of who and what I am shifts like the dunes of the Sahara. Even though my core being remains stable, I continually reorient myself to accommodate the height and movement of those subtle changes. I breathe through the disorientation of those shifts, remembering that my destiny lies not only on the path ahead of me, in the perpetual movement around me, but also within me. It will always be so.

What determines your destiny? How do the tiny or enormous shifts in the dunes of your life change that? On what do you depend for your orientation? What is your current 'due north'? How is it different from what it was two years ago? What is the 'lab' from which you draw your orientation?

Destiny Orientation, Part 2

Orienting ourselves in the direction of our destiny begins with openness. Having an open mind. Having an open, willing heart. Living with and in the open-ended.

In the Northern hemisphere, the basic orientation is toward the North Star, true north. In the Southern hemisphere, the orientation is toward the Southern Cross. Either way, there's a star, a constellation, something in the night sky, that directs our path. Something that shines through the darkness as a guide for us to follow.

Then there's the gyroscope. Wikipedia defines it as "a device for measuring or maintaining orientation" even when the orientation is not fixed.  I believe we each have an inner gyroscope that also guides us, especially when our orientation seems off kilter, out of focus, wobbly. That inner gyroscope orients us toward our future, our destiny. It balances us.

What we need to do is trust ~ which is often the toughest thing to do. It appears that some spinning thing with a heavy mid-section certainly can't balance us on the head of a pin, as a place we so often feel we're perched. Or on a tightrope strung across Victoria Falls or the Grand Canyon. If we trust, if we lean into its spinning and allow that inner gyroscope do its job, we find ourselves back on track, balanced once again.

When have you felt your inner gyroscope? How do you find the courage to trust its spinning? When was the last time you had to find the bright constellation in the night sky? How did you feel when you found it? Did you trust its direction?

Destiny Orientation, Part 1

Walking down the hall in the sub-basement of the school district office, I passed a sign that, at first, didn't quite register. The words slipped easily inside my brain. It took a few seconds for the irony to follow. This was the sign: Destiny Orientation. It was being offered in a computer lab. Huh. I wasn't quite sure how they were planning on orienting people to their destiny, but I certainly found the signage humorous.

More than anything else, I wondered how the school district could even suggest knowing anything about orienting people to their destinies. One would think that Destiny Orientation is what education is truly all about ~~ but then, one would be sadly mistaken. Unless one's destiny is about taking tests. Or doing what everyone else around you is doing. Ah, but that's mostly political chatter.

What I want to do is make a sign like this and put it up in my office to see if anyone notices. Or asks what it means. Or if it can open a discussion about what destiny is.... and how one orients oneself toward it.

How do you orient yourself? How do you know where your destiny lies? Where do you think it is? What kind of sign do you need ~ or have you seen ~ pointing it out to you?