What do you do?

Today someone asked me a very common question, one that I have been asked several times since moving back to Victoria: "What do you do?" In turn, I have asked people this same question myself, and I find it's usually in reference to the jobs that people hold. It's interesting to be essentially jobless and try to answer this question. After having one main focus in my life for several years, I am realizing now how devastating it is to only "do" one thing and when that thing is gone, what do you do then? At the root of it, WHO ARE YOU?

I answer the question rather casually with something like, "I'm in transition," or "Still looking!" This is definitely true, but talk about a feeling of inadequacy! It is so interesting to me that we are not merely humans, we are humans that DO or HAVE things. It is undoubtedly necessary to stay busy, but how do we keep from getting too attached to these external factors? What you do can come and go. You can lose your job, your relationships could fail, your kids go away to school.... How is it that we keep our wits about us and aim to only be defined by who we truly are?

I have obviously been thinking about this a lot in the last few weeks and have had to do some major soul searching. What brings me joy? Where do I need to be? What are my passions? Who are the people I love the most? I treat all of the answers to these questions as my foundation and from there I rebuild a life. Yes - I could probably find a job more easily in Vancouver but you know what? I LOVE VICTORIA. I need sport in my life and hours of routine training (THANK YOU HPR!!!) I have beautiful friends here and across the country and I make sure to include them in my life. I trust that if I stay true to my passions, things will line up for me eventually.

So what do I do? I breathe in the ocean air, I clip into my bike, I run the trails, I enjoy good company and look forward to each new day.....