“I Am A Commitment To…”

I am working with a vocational coach and consultant from Alban Institute this year and yesterday he asked me a great question. He said, “Ask yourself, ‘What am I a commitment to? Which is not just “What am I committed to, but what you actually are a deep commitment to in your very being.'”

I was reminded of the lyrics of the song “Tombstone” by Elizabeth Swados from the folk oratorio “Missionaries” that I just performed in. Sister Dorothy Kazel sings,

A friend asked me
What I wanted
On my tombstone.

Well I would like
people to know
I am an allelujah from head to toe.

I am a commitment to __________________________.

A good way to get in touch with what really matters, eh?

I’ll be thinking about it for myself. I hope you might join me. Feel free to share.

7 Replies to ““I Am A Commitment To…””

  1. At first I thought “health,” but although that is where I spend most of my energy, it is not an end in itself. Joy. I am a commitment to joy.

    How amazing to realize that where I spend my time and energy may often lose track of that.

  2. That is a great question… it makes me think that I’m too scattered. My life is not arranged in a way that allows me to be a commitment to the things that I’d like. I spend most of my energy on a job which isn’t close enough to the things I care about. I’m hoping that things will arrange themselves so that I can evenutally do so something really fulfilling (that isn’t going to burn me out).

  3. I think what I’m working on is a commitment to beauty. When I first think about this statement, I think about so many things– truth, honesty, love, friendship, family, music, laughter, happiness. And your quote makes me nod my head and smile, so I’m dropping in alleluia in there, too.

    So what comes to me is that I am a commitment to beauty, in it’s many, many forms. Art and music top the list, with peace and love coming in as the less obvious but vitally important… and a commitment to beauty in the power of love and the power of faith…. And beauty that is uncovered, that needs to be revealed to the world… I think beauty is what I am a commitment to.

    Great post, PB, making me think. <3

  4. I am a commitment to truth–even if it gets me in trouble. And lightness–of heart, of mind, of body, of spirit.

    And on a totally (or not) unrelated subject, I’ve about decided, thanks in part to you, PB, that I’m not going to wait for my glorified body to have red hair.

  5. I am ill and wandering pointlessly around today and found this, which I love. Thank you.

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