Like most people, I sometimes wonder what my life is about. This morning, I got an e-mail from Wendy that reminded me of what my life is about. She wrote me to give thanks for my writings about change and reinvention. Wendy lost her longtime job last year, joining the ranks of the discarded, a growing population in America. “I came out of the corporate structure and was collateral damage in a downsizing culture.”

An opportunity came up, she wrote, for her to become a pet sitter. “I took the leap and now have the first job I have ever liked in my life. I didn’t have a lot of money saved so I was in no shape to retire. You have always shared your ups and downs and I could relate to so much of it. Your encouraging words helped me tread through some rough water. It is nice to know that it is possible to come out unscathed.”

Wendy and I have both learned one of the enduring lessons of modern life, I think. It is better to love what you do than seek security in what you hate and fear. Wendy was given the opportunity to save her life and sense of worth, and she took it. Like most of us, she does not regret it and will never return to the enslavement of giving one’s life to people who will discard you and toss you in the trash like a greasy pizza box.

Wendy and I do not have much money in the bank, I don’t know that could ever retire or would ever want to. I have no regrets, I doubt she does either. I once ran a two-hour newscast for CBS News in New York and hated every second it and when CBS and I finally discarded one another, I became a writer, a job I have loved from the first day and love still.

I think I would love to be a fairy, with a magical creative wand, perhaps an angel with funky wings, my wand would shed glitter and creative sparks, and when I touched someone’s soul or heart, both would light up, and they would see that life is short, and life is hard, and that my God’s wish for us is to love our lives and seek meaning in them. I would wave my want at people, and they would leave work they hate and find work they love. They would stop arguing and be bitten by furious cherubs when they wrote nasty messages on Facebook or spouted hate and ignorance on cable news,  and instead turn their energy and spirits into creation – the poem they wished to write, the story they wished to tell, the painting they wished to paint, the blog they wished to start, the book they wished to write, the job they wished to have, the life they wished to lead.

Wendy learned, as I learned, that this is possible, many angels have touched the hearts and spirits of many people, and they casting off the chains that bind their souls and spirits and fulfilling the opportunity that human beings alone on this earth have – to find their voices and raise them, to risk all and that they too, have made the great leap of faith and find the first thing they have loved in their life.

I have learned what Wendy learned Maria has learned it as well, we live a creative life together, we shake our magical pixie dust on one another. The other day Maria told me that she was walking in the woods and met a tree, she hugged and kissed it, it was so beautiful to her. Her creative spark lights up the world sometimes, and saves my broken heart.

Life is never easy or simple, but it is nice to know that we can give rebirth to ourselves and come out whole, our souls and spirits drinking from the sweet and pure goblet of joy and meaning.

I think that’s what my life is about.