Looking for Answers: Please Share

"'Oh, my, my, my, my my,' she sighed. 

'Knowing what you know is sometimes very hard.'"

-the creepy-crawly bug, Sam Swope's Gotta Go! Gotta Go!

Clementine 10/09

As Jim and I were deciding to eat dinner at El Cerro Azul this evening, I commented that Mexican food sounded wonderful, and Clementine--wearing a dress-up pink-and-purple ball gown with several layers of tulle in the hiney-butt area--spun several times in her sparkly, pink tennis shoes and exclaimed: "Go to Mexico!" 

Clementine and I had just read, the other day, one of Cade's old favorites: Gotta Go! Gotta Go! by Sam Swope, the story of a female caterpillar / Monarch butterfly who spends her entire lifetime acting upon her instincts, even though she doesn't really understand her compulsions.  Over and over, she says: "I gotta go!  I gotta go!  I gotta go to Mexico!" Swope writes simply, but I find that--if I allow--his words kick up some dust in my head, especially when paired with a lovely, lively conversation from yesterday.

Yesterday's conversation revolved around this question: how do people find meaningful activities/occupations in this lifetime?

Each of us knows someone who lives out his or her dream every day and, therefore, seems fulfilled, content.  If you are that person, would you care to share, please, how you came to find your meaningful activity and/or occupation?  Were you--like Sam Swope's caterpillar--simply compelled?  Or did a particular set of circumstances lead to your finding your activity and/or occupation?  If so, please share the circumstances.  (Mothers, I am especially interested to know if you have found some measure of fulfillment outside of your mothering, or if you have found a way to interweave with your mothering meaningful activities/occupations beyond your mothering.)  Please feel free to ask these questions of your fulfilled friends and post their answers here...or to direct them to this place. 

Thank you for your time and, in advance, for your thoughtful responses.  I look forward to an enlightening, insightful conversation in this space!  (I will share my answers to the above questions, later, but can't wait to read yours in the meantime!)