The difference between a longing and a calling

Longing involves you and your soul. It is a pull to become more of who you are. Calling involves you, your soul and the world. It is an invitation to act.

Some people experience their heart’s longing as a tug or a whisper, others might actually see a picture or hear a voice, and still others might have a felt-sense of their longing. I usually experience it as a “sacred nudge”— a feeling or image that initially emerges as a gentle breeze of slight knowing, and then grows ever more demanding if not acted upon.

However your longing presents itself to you, is your way. Truly claim the rightness of this. It is the way wisdom arises for you.

The energy of longing is deep and powerful. Once recognized and acknowledged, it has almost a primal nature to it. But when translated into words, longings might either seem flat and amorphous or grand and unattainable. You might experience a longing for home, peace, adventure, wildness, safety, beauty, intimacy, consistency, change, security, expression, a particular place, clarity, escape, creativity, freedom, love, focus, passion. 

Don’t judge or try to unpack your longing. Simply welcome and honor it.  It is an expression of your expansive self.

Your heart's longing exists unto itself, unwavering in its solidity and purpose.  It wants you to listen for and answer a call - an invitation to create, in physical form, that which you know to be true about who you are becoming and what the world needs.

Maybe you are being called to create art, start a business, tend to a relationship, design a service, show up more fully with your family, friends or colleagues, take a trip, move to a new location, offer a kind word, dance, use your voice, write and publish, or do the dishes graciously. Callings require you to act in community, sharing your gifts and receiving the goodness that others offer.

Sometimes it's hard for us to trust the rightness of a calling. We want to rationalize it, ignore it, put it aside, compare it to what we've done in the past or what we see others doing now. We might dismiss it because it seems small and insignificant. Or maybe we are tempted to shy away from it because it seems too big and vast and scary.

But we are invited to meet our calling with curiosity and loving openness, allowing it to gradually awaken us. While some calls come with sudden knowing and clearly defined next steps, most calls require spaciousness to explore their possibility.  Journey and play with your call and  create various versions of it in the world to see what brings you the most joy. 

Longing and callings are simply invitations to see and express the fullness of yourself. They are paths of listening that lead to you to take action so that you awaken the world with what you are here to do.