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Lemonada.

I'm Gretchen Rubin, and this is a little happier.

Several years ago, my family and I went to see Sequence Eight,

a performance by the Seven Fingers,

an artist collective based in Montreal, Canada.

It was a performance that was part circus, part dance, it was beautiful and thought-provoking.

But as much as I enjoyed the show, I was just as interested in the playbill.

Now, I've thought a lot about what it means to experience a call. That is a powerful,

practically irresistible feeling that you're meant to do a certain kind of work. I certainly felt a call to writing. It took me a while to hear it and follow it, but I remember thinking,

well, at this point, I'd rather fail as a writer than succeed as a lawyer. I remember quoting

juvenile to my father. An inveterate and incurable itch for writing besets many and grows old

with their sick hearts. I didn't want that to happen to me.

I was struck by the evidence in the playbill that many of these performers had felt a call to the

circus. Here's a sampling from several bios. In 2008, his life took a serious turn when he abandoned his studies at McGill University and entered the National Circus School of Montreal in what was decidedly one of the best decisions of his life.

Discovered circus at age eight. Immediately impassioned, he tried every circus experience he could.

Was barely five when he entered the San Francisco School of Circus Arts.

I once met a woman who left her family and dropped out of school in her early teens to become a juggler.

When I expressed surprise, she said, I just had to do everything I could to learn to juggle.

This may sound comical as I say it, but in the moment, it was a profound and almost terrifying statement.

In some ways, a call is wonderful. It's clear. It's urgent. It's fulfilling.

But in some ways, and for some people, a call isn't wonderful. A call means no choice, or at least

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