I ought to like this question, because I spend more of my life living in my head that out of it. However, I'd want to say to whatever dumbass instructor asked me that, "You ARE kidding, right?"

I'd continue by saying: Who thinks there has to BE a purpose in life? Who gave you, Ms/Mr Instructor, the right to decide that some outside force deemed that we have a purpose or purposes in life? Do you think we have to be "here" for a purpose so that we can feel our life has or has had some significance or meaning? That there is more to it than "shit happens and then you die?" I don't like when not only does someone tell me what rules I have to abide by in the universe but also has the nerve to even suggest that there are any such rules except for some that I may decide to make up for myself if I need any to, as the song says, "get me through the night." (Damn, it feels good to be able to rant and rave at some imagined dumbass instructor....)

And if the question is, "What is THEE purpose in life," I would REALLY be seeing red.


Oh, I could try to justify what's happened in my life thus far by thinking that some of what I've suffered has been in order to help, for example, my parents grow, or I've been matched up with my daughter to give her a better chance in life with her major health problems since I have a medical background and am absolutely devoted to her care. I could think that I am here to help fight for all the underdogs of the world, being the bleeding heart liberal that I am, who believes in practicing what I preach. Or I could think, like a psychic told me a couple of years ago, that maybe my soul just chose this life this time around...one in which I will see what it is like to not ever be happy, to not ever have anything work out the way I wish it would. (That was the last time I talked to her!)

Now...that said, I myself can't begin to guess at whether I am here because of any outside force having put me here for a purpose. However, I am one of those list makers, one of those who has to have a goal or goals to work toward, however big or small. It gives me a chance to feel I've accomplished something, and then I get the pleasure of crossing whatever I've accomplished off my list, even if that list is only in my head. So I have purposes, or goals, in life that I myself have created, and they range from trying to see to it that we have food on the table each day to trying to be of service to someone (stranger, patient, loved one) as often and in as many ways as I possibly can (fits right in with my tendency to be a giver). My, my; that was rather cathartic.

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Communication is the key.