On a brisk fall morning, I enjoyed the beauty of Newport. I had no idea it is on an island, which made me curious about the people running a marathon (or half). I’ve completed multiple halfs and one marathon. I know it’s not about running a straight line to a destination. It’s a meandering of discipline. For some reason, imagining these people looping on an island on a weekend morning paused me. I wondered what each individual was accomplishing. Some might be meeting a goal. Others might be supporting someone, enjoying a hobby, proving someone wrong, improving themselves mentally or physically.

Even when we’re on a similar journey, we purpose a bit differently. I thought about the people I was walking alongside, mostly fellow vacationers. Some people desperately needed a break from their everyday routines. Some were trying to save a relationship. Some were trying to avoid something they didn’t want to deal with, so they escaped. Some wanted to learn history, experience something or somewhere they hadn’t been before, interact with new people, or make memories only they could define.

There are many reasons for what we do and where we are, and sometimes only we can know them. Maybe even we don’t know our reasons at times, but what if we tried to determine them so we could move forward with purpose? Finding purpose shouldn’t be something we try to check off our lists; it’s leaning into understanding, insight, and intention. It’s pursuit within the meandering of life. It’s okay to meander, but if we don’t have a general idea of where we’re going, we won’t have a reference of how far we are off track, or consider when it’s time to abandon the path altogether for a reroute. We need to be aware of what we can pass by and what need to pause and ponder. We need to know when to sit for a rest and when to push through what seems unbearable. We need to know, even when we are repeating the same loop repeatedly, we are never the same from one to another—when we pursue purpose.