Isn’t serendipity fun?

For last Saturday’s yoga class, as part of our ongoing reading of the Bhagavad Gita, we began what will probably be a weeks-long exploration of dharma. We started by looking at this complicated concept as one’s calling: something you feel compelled to do and are a natural at – as Arjuna, with being a warrior – even though it may be difficult at times, challenging your devotion – as with Arjuna in the battle against his extended family. One way to find your dharma is to listen, to hear the call welling up from God, your heart, soul, spirit (or whatever you like to call it).  Meditation and mantra are great tools to help  practice listening.

After nearly three hours of classes on the topic, I got in my car to drive home. As is my habit, I switched on KNPR, and what was playing? Snap Judgment’s episode No. 303 “The Call.”

I almost couldn’t believe my ears! From the first segment on a doctor who is struck by lightning twice and, in that, hears the universe telling her she’s a shaman , to a regular Joe taking a neighborhood tragedy and using it to transform himself into a real-world superhero… every story told of the personal risk and reward of finding one’s calling. Every storyteller seemed to echo Krishna‘s words to Arjuna: It’s better to fail at living your own dharma than to succeed at living someone else’s.

If you feel you haven’t found your calling, relax. Embracing life with an open heart and mind are more likely to lead you to it than gritting your teeth and trying to force it to reveal itself. And while you wait for that call, celebrate people like Butterscotch, whose courage should inspire you to keep going, no matter how long it takes.