Going to Work

Tags

essential, Joan Chittister, mantra, office, penance, service, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, work

I can’t say that I am excited about going to work this morning. My list of homegrown tasks is long enough to fill the whole week, but an office day will bring me back to focus on the part of life that is more difficult to celebrate on lovely summer days.

Joan Chittister says in her book, Wisdom Distilled From the Daily, that in the monastic tradition “work is not a punishment or a penance. Work is a privilege.” She is certainly right about that in my life. I’m so grateful for all the different positions I have held and every kind of work I have been called to in all my years. My work has put me in touch with a huge number of people – some tangentially and some directly – all of whom have added to my growth as a person.

I think today of all the people who work in monotonous situations, as in factories where there work consists of one repeated task all day, every day. My prayer for them would be the knowledge of how their work is essential to whatever is being created by the collective work of all the employees, and perhaps that they might consider their part as a mantra, repeated for the good of all. And for those who work in sanitation departments, I pray in thanksgiving for their service to the rest of us as they take away all the things that clutter our lives so that we can come to see more clearly.

I could go on but I need to get ready to leave for work. I do, however, want to continue thinking about those who offer essential services to the public and to pray in gratitude for them. And my hope is that they can find satisfaction in their service, especially in relationships with those who share in their work. And for the unemployed, I pray that work will soon be offered to them and that they will be taken care of by the generosity of others until that day comes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practice

Tags

benediction, consciousness, daily life, essential, lessons, Pablo Casals, piano, spiritual practices, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I love listening to piano music, especially if it involves watching the person playing. The ability to do something different with each hand at the same time creating such beauty is a marvel to me. I took piano lessons once for about eight months when I was teaching school. I gave it up, thinking that my teacher, my colleague, could better spend her time with someone or something else because I could never find enough time for sufficient practice. Now I appreciate the skill even more than I did before those eight months when I was 31 years of age.

On Monday of this week I sat with a group of spiritual seekers to talk about our particular spiritual practices. We came to the conclusion that almost anything can fit that category, depending upon the motivation and consciousness with which it is performed. It’s the regular practice that is the key.

This morning I read a quote by Pablo Casals (1876-1973), a maestro who knew the value of practice, not only in order to play the piano, but also to live a full life. He said this: For the past eighty years I have started each day in the same manner. It is not a mechanical routine but something essential to my daily life. I go to the piano and play two preludes and fugues of Bach. I cannot think of doing otherwise. It is a sort of benediction on the house. But that is not its only meaning for me. It is a rediscovery of the world of which I have the joy of being a part. It fills me with awareness of the wonder of life, with a feeling of the incredible marvel of being a human being.

As I look out my window every morning (hoping each time I travel to find such a gift as well), I find a peace that comes to my eyes and my heart just to recognize that – even as the wind bends the branches of the tallest tree, even as last summer’s grass lies yellowish-brown or covered in snow on the ground, whether the sky is brilliant magenta or emptying its buckets of rain – I am here and the world goes on as it will, always turning and traveling its given course through our universe. Looking out and giving thanks has become my simplest, most essential spiritual practice. What is yours?