It’s Time To Answer Your Calling By Jamie Linn Saloff

(If you haven’t yet watched Star Wars: Episode V. . . spoiler alert.   I’m about to reveal a much-talked-about scene in that movie.) 

Having faced some sudden and horrific challenges in his life, Luke Skywalker sees a vision. His former mentor, Obi-Wan, now deceased, tells him to go to the planet Dagobah, find Jedi Master Yoda, and complete his Jedi training. Luke does go to Dagobah where he lands his starship in a bog. This is just the first faux pas he makes while trying to figure out who he is and what he should be doing. 

Luke finds a lot of his training frustrating, physical, and emotionally trying. He's still at the young, green stage where he thinks he knows everything. He’s mouthy, brassy, and questions everything. Yoda is skeptical that Luke can even be trained at all. 

Meanwhile, Luke feels pulled in multiple directions at once. He wants to be a Jedi, doesn’t understand the training, and really isn't succeeding at what Yoda asks of him. Finally, he leaves Yoda, his training unfinished, feeling desperately called to help his friends. 

Think what you like of young Skywalker (whether or not you’re familiar with the movies), the one thing we can say for sure is that he followed his intuition. 

In much the same way Luke felt pulled and drawn to what he must do, so too are we pulled toward our highest calling. But in a world where so much is begging for our attention, we may not be answering that call, at least, not to its fullest demand. And, in case you haven’t noticed, if ever we needed lightworkers, healers, and other spiritual workers, it’s now.

You may know what your calling is, or you may be unsure. What you can be sure of is that something, whatever that something is, is calling you forward. Now it may be something noble, valiant, or heroic. But it can just as easily be something simple. . . a new job (or leaving one), a new hobby, maybe some training (like Luke). Whatever it is, you can be sure it involves doing something, however easy or hard that thing is.

Diagnosed with Hodgkins in my early years, I didn’t think I had long to live. But a vision of a baby kept me going forward. Told I could have no more children, my husband brought me a baby doll. I think he thought that would have to suffice. (He was wrong.) That baby would arrive, despite any medical prediction, but I may have helped by throwing away the birth control my doctors said I didn’t need. (I had to take action on that calling.) Was that child part of my mission? I only know that at that moment in time, that is what I felt called to do. 

Some years later, after a surgery gone wrong, I lay in a CT tunnel hearing a nurse on the phone telling my husband he had better return to the hospital quickly. They didn’t think I would make it. All I could think of while lying there awaiting surgery was. . . I never wrote that damn book! 

After three days in a coma, I awoke. Sometime after, I remember telling a mentor of mine that I didn’t really want to be here. I wished I’d died on that operating table. He got real serious with me on the phone and said, "I’m already doing what I’m called to do. I’ve got my hands full doing it. I don’t have the time or the initiative to take on your mission too. You’re the only one that can do it." 

Now, you may think that’s a strange way to talk to someone who wished they’d died, but for me, it was just the right thing. It would take time, but I would write that book (and others). Is that why I am here? Is that my highest and best? Or is it just another stepping stone to whatever I came here to do? Will I be called forward yet again for the next thing, and the next? (I’m counting on it.)

Our calling is often a series of small steps that somehow lead to where we were meant to be. We may not be called to save the galaxy like Luke was. But however big or small it might be, you can bet you’re designed to be the perfect person to do it. 

We are in chaotic times right now. And there are a lot of people in need all around us. You may feel you are as well—which makes it even more important that you step out toward your calling, walk the path you are meant to walk, and fulfill what you have been called to perform. 

What that looks like: 

1) Be open to and aware of any internal nudges and intuitive guidance. Watch for external signals as well. 

2) Take action on those nudges. The best action is to figure out your best first step forward. Take that first step. 

3) keep focusing on "What’s my next first step?" And don’t jump to conclusions as to where you are going. I find the destination isn’t always what I thought. 

4) There will be naysayers. Like Luke leaving his training you will know your right actions by how they make you feel. In the body messaging work I do with clients, we typically find if they are holding back, the body sends symptoms of their hesitation. 

5) Constantly ask for help and be open to guidance from the Divine (however you perceive that). I ask for angelic help for almost everything. 

6) Know that you are here for a reason and, when you allow it, the Divine will use you in a multitude of ways. You are blessed.

It’s common to feel inadequate, unworthy, scared, and overwhelmed by everything grasping at you and asking you to do something you’re unsure you’re capable of doing. Keep in mind that, however imperfect you may feel you are—and let me assure you Luke was—you are still the one called by the Divine to answer that call. Luke barely knew the ways of his Jedi world, yet, at that time in his life, he took action with pure, raw inspiration. 

If you’re one of the up-and-coming, still-unsure-of-yourself, winging-it souls, go forward with your saber of light and love and conquer. Now is the time. Answer your call. Know too that I will be walking my own footpath, making my way the best I can as well. 

May the Force, or God, or however you see the Divine, light your way.

About Jamie Linn Saloff:  Jamie Linn Saloff is an author, teacher, story weaver, spiritual counselor, seer of visions, pathfinder. For over thirty years Jamie has taught type-A driven free spirits how to be happy, healthy, and wealthy by listening to their body groan and their soul weep.

Jamie's website: https://www.marvelousmessages.com/