To be needed for what you’re good at

Today I got the chance to do something for someone else, and damn, it felt good. As I see it written down, I realize that it might sound ridiculous – what, it’s so rare that I do something for someone else that I have to write a blog post about it? Way to be a crappy person.

But that wasn’t it. I got to do something I’m good at, in the service of someone else. And for me, that is incredibly rare. Normally, I’m expected to do boring or complicated things that I don’t really care about. Like, you know, cleaning the house or baking a cake or phoning the municipality to order one of those forms you have to fill in if you want to change heating systems… in a word, bleh.

But today, something I wrote meant something to someone. Not a book or anything, but a small column I write for a local magazine. The one thing I really love to do, which can seem so esoteric and pointless at times (for other people) – today that gift was accepted by a total stranger, and that whole feeling of “I’m a part of this world after all” unfurled in my heart.

To be needed for what you’re good at. I hope every single person gets to feel that.