Nicole Com­mis­siong

I re­cent­ly opened my home to host a gar­den par­ty for a care­ful­ly cu­rat­ed group of peo­ple who have each made a mean­ing­ful im­pact on my life. Most of them had nev­er met be­fore.

As the evening un­fold­ed, con­ver­sa­tions drift­ed ef­fort­less­ly through the gar­den. Laugh­ter filled the air, in­tro­duc­tions be­came sto­ries, and strangers slow­ly be­came friends. There was no agen­da or for­mal pro­gramme: just the sim­ple gift of be­ing present with one an­oth­er.

Be­fore the evening came to an end, I in­vit­ed each guest to vis­it our care­ful­ly cu­rat­ed flower bar and cre­ate a bou­quet to take home. It was my way of show­ing grat­i­tude to them and giv­ing them their flow­ers while I still could. As I watched every­one thought­ful­ly choose stems and arrange blooms, I felt a deep sense of sat­is­fac­tion in re­al­is­ing that they were leav­ing with a mem­o­ry.

That evening re­mind­ed me how eas­i­ly we can spend our lives pur­su­ing suc­cess while for­get­ting to build the mo­ments that make the jour­ney to­wards suc­cess worth­while.

Our world en­cour­ages us to chase ti­tles, pro­mo­tions, beau­ti­ful homes and fi­nan­cial mile­stones. There is noth­ing wrong with am­bi­tion—in fact, we should pur­sue ex­cel­lence and make the most of every op­por­tu­ni­ty. But I have come to be­lieve that ma­te­r­i­al wealth, on its own, does not cre­ate joy. Joy is found in the re­la­tion­ships we nur­ture, the mem­o­ries we cre­ate, and the in­ten­tion­al way we choose to live.

Mon­ey can pro­vide com­fort and free­dom. The greater gift, how­ev­er, is hav­ing the free­dom to cre­ate ex­pe­ri­ences that bring peo­ple to­geth­er. A shared meal. A fam­i­ly hol­i­day. A lime with friends. A walk through the neigh­bour­hood. A phone call that lasts longer than planned. These mo­ments rarely ap­pear on a ré­sumé, yet they be­come the sto­ries our chil­dren tell and the mem­o­ries our loved ones car­ry long af­ter the day has passed.

The old­er I get, the more pro­tec­tive I have be­come of my time. I’ve learned that some of life’s great­est re­turns are found in shared ex­pe­ri­ences with the peo­ple I love.

So, as you pur­sue your dreams and work hard to build a suc­cess­ful life, don’t wait for the per­fect oc­ca­sion to gath­er the peo­ple who mat­ter most. Open your home. Share the meal. Take the trip. Cel­e­brate the or­di­nary. Tell peo­ple what they mean to you while they are here to hear it.

That, to me, is what it means to live well on pur­pose.

Long af­ter the flow­ers have fad­ed, the mem­o­ries we in­ten­tion­al­ly cre­ate will con­tin­ue to bloom in the hearts of those we love. To me, that is the rich­est lega­cy of all.

Got a ques­tion for Nicole? Please e-mail liv­ing­wellon­pur­pose2026@gmail.com.