Thursday, October 21, 2010

All She Knew Was She Loved Monkeys

Destiny. Anthony Robbins touts about his "blind date with Destiny". We all are pursuing it, actively or passively. What is "my" destiny? How will I find it? Does God have it written out for me? Is it in pieces like a puzzle in front of me waiting for me to put all the edges together first and then fill in the middle?

My eyes and heart scan the horizon for stories of Destiny. How did other women find theirs or essentially carve theirs out of life like a stone David . . .

And I find the story of Jane Goodall. The woman who single-handedly set the scientific community in an uproar over discoveries in the monkey community and whose name will go down in history as the woman who lived among them. Did she know at the start that would be her legacy, her destiny? I think not. She just knew she liked monkeys. That was all.

A young Jane Goodall went into the jungles of the Gombe Stream Game Reserve with basically no education to speak of, not even an undergraduate degree. She just wanted to watch monkeys.

As she observed she found "Greybeard" - the old chimp that opened her eyes to the depth of the monkey connection. From him she learned insights, patterns and habits that would put in question previous understanding. Greybeard changed paradyms in Jane's mind, as well as the paradyms in science and history. What she thought she knew, what the scientific community thought they knew, was about to change forever.

And thus is the pattern. A desire, a "like" an attraction, a "love" draws us to a new place. In that new place we find teachers and lessons that change us. And that learning, that changing, is our destiny.

What are you being drawn to? What new unconquered terrain are you compelled to explore? And who are the teachers around you? Are your paradyms shifting? Is your thinking being challenged?

Your destiny requires you to move out of your comfort zone and learn and change.

The root being love - because love draws us out. It compels us to stretch.

Great women of destiny have been drawn out for love - Ruth Hadler in her creation of Barbie, Princess Diana in her love of those sick with AIDS, Mother Teresa in her compassion for the dying, "Daisy" Low who founded the Girl Scouts of America in her encouragement of teenage girls discovering the great outdoors....each a destiny which drew them out for love.

A blind date with destiny doesn't have to be so blind. The heart sees it clearly. Follow love and your destiny will follow.

All Jane knew was she loved monkeys.