...a mission statement

First things first – the blog moved!!! …and then it moved back!!!! If you missed the whole moving saga and teary farewell in my last post, feel free to catch up on your reading, but suffice it to say that there was one technical issue in moving my blog to be part of the new website that could not be resolved so that I didn’t lose readers. And I love you, my readers, so very much, that I decided to keep the blog where it is so you will always be able to find me. (I know, I’m unbelievably thoughtful like that.)

As for the new website, please stop by for a visit, and keep coming by from time to time. Things are just starting to get exciting and as time progresses, there will be more music, pictures, and tour dates! www.ileneangel.com

Now to the matter at hand – today’s blog offering…

I suppose it’s a sign of the times we live in that companies and industries all have mission statements. I’ve even seen them at the top of resumes, a summation, if you will, of what the desired end result is. I don’t think this is bad idea. In fact, I think it would be a good idea for every person to have one for their lives as well as their careers and to revisit it from time to time. Maybe then we’d have a focus, a direction, a road not to veer too far off of in life.

I’ve had a mental mission statement for my songwriting for at least the past eighteen years that I can recall – “to uplift, comfort, motivate and inspire.” It’s funny to me now that “to entertain” never really entered into the equation. But truthfully, nice as entertaining is, I always felt like humanity had too much at stake for me to be screwing around writing trite ditties. And because I was adamant about that, God, who by the way, clearly revels in both irony and humor, made my biggest commercial hits to date catchy ditties. I know - that God is such a kidder.

Only recently have I started thinking about my life’s mission statement and not just my music’s. I didn’t really think about it, actually. It just came to me one day and I typed it in my iPhone, where all profound ideas must be kept.

My mission? To be an expansion of love’s presence on the planet. It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But you try it when someone cuts you off on the road, or when you feel slighted, hurt, angry, or brokenhearted. Often, the simplest ideas are the hardest to achieve. But I like clear-cut goals. I like being able to ask myself at any given moment, “Does this support my ultimate desire? Is this what being an expansion of love really looks like?”

What’s your mission? Why do you think you are here? What does the world at large need right now that only you have to offer? If someone were to write a history book in the future about this time period, and you were to be a chapter in it, what would they say your contribution was? What are you an example of? What is your life an example of?

I think we only teach or lead by example. There’s nothing you can tell someone else to do or be effectively, without first embodying that quality yourself. And no great thing accomplished is ever truly accomplished alone. There may be many solitary endeavors, but our interconnectedness is ever-present and eternal.

So today I invite you to come up with your own mission statement. Write it down. Say it aloud. Let it sink into your bones. Words have power. Once uttered, we are held accountable for them, whether by our own conscience or by others. What we say and do matters. We may not like to acknowledge that, but it’s true nonetheless. So I say we make our “mission” clear, our dreams bold, and our time spent here one for the books.

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