I've been in a dilemma as to what to write about this week, just one day before my daughter's graduation from high school, and suddenly I realized that life is what there was to write about.

Here's what transpired this week, and how it pertains to living on purpose.

It's been a pretty typical week that has repeated a number of times through the years whenever the Swift family has an occasion or holiday to celebrate, except this year we caught ourselves in the midst of a family "Off Purpose Pattern."

Since Ann's family will be arriving for the graduation this meant we had to massively clean the house from top to bottom, prepare the food for after the graduation, on top of the regular activities of running a business from our home and the rest of our 'normal life'.  Meanwhile, Amber grew more and more stressed about how she needed to look, and all that she needed to do to have her hair look just right, and her nails, and her outfit (even though it was going to be under her gown).

So, by today, less than 24-hours before the graduation ceremony, we were all pretty stressed out.  It all 'hit the fan' about two hours ago, when Ann and Amber got into it about all the things that still needed to be done.  Of course, I managed to add my own stress by having waited to the last minute to work on this week's ezine while trying to play my (off purpose) role as peacemaker. <G>

But the Divine intervened.  Feeling the overall energy of the family I walked outside and visited my garden for a few minutes. While I was there I realized that we were repeating an 'Off Purpose Pattern,' with many of our actions not coming from a place of Divine Love but more from the "shoulds"  and 'expectations' (many of which weren't being fulfilled.)

For Ann, it was how her house 'should' look before her family comes to visit. For Amber, it was all about how she 'should' look, and of course, I had my own shoulds, like for sure a family on purpose should never get so off purpose in their life, and I should have written this article already.

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What We Almost Missed
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What we almost missed was experiencing the accomplishment that this occasion is meant to acknowledge and celebrate.  My lovely, smart, witty, gracious daughter is about to graduate from high school — a high school that we created because we chose to home school her.

I'll admit choosing the home school route has been one of the most daring experiments of this life on purpose, in large part because of the precious nature of what we were experimenting with — our daughter's education and development.

The final results aren't even in yet, but when I look at Amber and how she's developed, her level of maturity, her ability to think things through for herself and make her own decisions, the lack of any of the typical challenges that many parents of teenagers face — drugs, sexual promiscuity, breaking the law, etc.  I am satisfied experiment is working out just fine — one might even say brilliantly.

What I want to be sure we don't miss is the true accomplishment that this graduation signifies, and that so much of has been sourced from Divine Love — our love for our daughter, for sure. And also, the tremendous gratitude I feel right now as I realize the wonderful gift we've been given — the gift to choose how we create our lives.

As I've said many times to my clients, living a life on purpose isn't about never getting off purpose.  It's about recognizing when we're drifting away from the source of life, and consciously choosing to pivot back. And now, it's time for me to take my own coaching.

So, you may discover more than the normal number of typos in today's article, for which I ask for your forgiveness in advance, because I'm sending it out as it is because I have a celebration of life to participate in.  I trust you will understand.