work

To do work carefully and well

To do work carefully and well, with love and respect for the nature of my task and with due attention to its purpose, is to unite myself with God's will in my work.  I become an instrument for God to work through me.
 

The old masters didn't care whether anyone could see their flaws

"We don’t really have to do a perfect job."

"Nobody will be able to tell, though."

"That’s not the point, not the point at all.  The old masters didn't care whether anyone could see their flaws or not.  They wanted to do as well as they could, because their work was a gift to God, who deserved their best.  That’s all gone; now what's important is whether anyone will notice the difference, and how much it will all cost.  It changes the spirit of the building forever."
 

Work that is being done attentively and well

Ludmilla taught me that we can pray anywhere, during any kind of work that is being done attentively and well and to the best of our ability.  In such work, God is present.  We only have to know this and try to give it our heart.  Many people wish to have spiritual development without obstacles or even effort, and so they will never understand God’s love or the poverty of our humanity.
 

Not fatigued from overwork

A hidden river runs beneath the conscious layers of our lives.  We become fatigued not from overwork, but from how much energy it takes to stage our lives in order to drown out the sounds of the river inside us.
 

The many work for the One

Society functions at its very best when each member finds security in their place in the social structure.  When all members can be gainfully employed, yet have individual initiative, when they can excel in their own craft and find satisfaction in their work contributing to the overall goals of society, then there exists harmony and a sense of community.  When members have an interest in the continuity of their community, great deeds can be accomplished.  This is because the many work for the One.
 

September 2009 (Vol. XXII, No. 8)

No one else can know what work will make our hearts sing, but we ourselves in our own inner being. Two mystic poets can, however, help us with the essence of what our Work can aspire to be: Gibran – "Work is love made visible" and Rumi – "Let the beauty we love be what we do." Work as an offering of our Selves in love, with all our strengths and limitations, to the wider community becomes a mutual blessing that honors our very being. To know Work as a sacred vocation no matter how lofty or how humble it may seem becomes equal in the eyes of Love. For all good work contributes to the Whole ... nothing we do with love and kindness is too little.

In the silence we can ponder the ways we work in love, create or honor beauty, and bring blessing to others. What makes your heart sing?

Contemplatives are the great doers

N. Gordon Cosby

Contrary to what many think, contemplatives are the great doers. In their return from silence they take up the work of giving form to the liberating truths that have been given to them in flashes of insight and vision. Because they have been present to themselves, they are able to be present to others in a way that awakens, enlivens, gives courage. In them we see more clearly a way of existence that combines both being and doing.

Pull away the veil and allow the force to come through

Karyn D. Kedar

To be in service to God is to realize that there is a loving force in the universe, and I must pull away the veil and allow the force to come through.

In planetary service, all work and workers are equal

Jacqueline Small

In planetary service, all work and workers
are equal. ... All service leads to the good
of the whole.

Great acts are the small, quiet ones that no one hears about

Neil White In the Sanctuary of Outcasts

I didn't know exactly how to go about helping others. But if I could remember that great acts are the small, quiet ones that no one hears about, that would be a start. I could look for ways myself to help people in need of a boost, to align myself with underdogs. I need to remember Ella's way with her leprosy ... her intent. Perhaps it didn't matter what I did to earn a living, as long as the motive was to help others and not just gain attention.

What counts is the slightest effort to give one's all

Thomas Matus Nazarena

The more I withdraw into God and with God into silence, the closer I feel to everyone and the more I find everyone. The more I make my little efforts to help others by practicing my calling, the more fruit I bear, albeit without seeing a single fruit. I must live my life with naked and pure faith, giving everything without seeing anything. What holy peace and joy this gives to my soul! Even if all I give is worth no more than a penny, how pleasing it is to God, because what counts is the slightest effort to give one's all, and how great is the reward: God's all.

To be here doing whatever it is I am to be doing

Madelieine Thompson

I am learning as I go about my daily life of work, play, or prayers that it is right and good to be here doing whatever it is I am to be doing. In a word, attentiveness and being in the present. Learning to be. A growing sense of vocation with the liberty to be at One ... to be harmonious.

Your feel your longings and desires and they do the Work

David Whyte

You feel your longing and desires and they do the Work. My whole life has been following my intuition and strange beckonings.

The way to do is to be!

Lao Tzu

The way to do is to be!

Without going outside,
you may know the whole world.
Without looking through the window,
you may see the ways of heaven.
The farther you go, the less you know.

Thus the sage knows without traveling ...
sees without looking ...
works without doing.

God, give me work

Winifred Holthy

God, give me work
Till my life shall end
And life
Till my work is done.

Work helps prevent one from getting old

Scott Nearing

Work helps prevent one from getting old. My work is my life. I cannot think of one without the other. The one who works and is never bored is never old. A person is not old until regrets take the place of hopes and plans. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for aging. ... With age your facility of expression and perception diminishes. I have almost nothing left but time. But if I can be of service, I would like to go on living.

The Work of our lives

John Woolman

To turn all we possess into the channel of universal love becomes the Work of our lives.

Your work is to discover your world

Buddha

Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.

When love and skill work together

John Ruskin

When love and skill work together,
expect a masterpiece.

I am lent to be spent in the service of others

Douglas Speer

O Thou, cut down in me this hour and every
hour the swift growing tree of self-regard
which screens me from the needs of others.

Fill me with the realization that for these
few swift years I am put here on earth,
I am lent to be spent in the service of others.

Simple labor is smoothing my edges

Joan Anderson A Year By the Sea

I'm learning that what's important is not so much what I do to make a living as who I become in the process. Simple labor is smoothing my edges, teaching me to crave work not because it might make me special or wealthy but because the job pleases my spirit, makes me a more pleasant person, and meets my immediate financial needs.

... Forcing things works against instinct and the elements. Working within the tides and the rules of the universe is fast becoming my preference.

They worked at a gentle pace

Helena Norberg-Hodge Ancient Futures

I found that the Ladakhis had an abundance of time. They worked at a gentle pace and had a surprising amount of leisure. Even during harvest season, when the work lasts long hours, it is done at a relaxed pace that allows an eighty-year-old as well as a young child to join in and help. People work hard, but at their own rate, accompanied by laughter and song. The distinction between work and play is not rigidly defined.

Great acts are the small, quiet ones that no one hears about

I didn't know exactly how to go about helping others. But if I could remember that great acts are the small, quiet ones that no one hears about, that would be a start. I could look for ways myself to help people in need of a boost, to align myself with underdogs. I need to remember Ella's way with her leprosy ... her intent. Perhaps it didn't matter what I did to earn a living, as long as the motive was to help others and not just gain attention.

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