September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

Anne Strader

Autumn blessings to each of you, dear friends of silence!  It's hard to believe summer vacations are over and harvest time, with fall activities and duties is here.  As we return to our workplaces, consider Gibran’s teaching: "Work is your love made visible."   Adding consciousness and attention to the skills we bring to our workplace is demonstrating love visibly, and what a difference it can make!  For as within, so without: If we work consciously and with love shining, we are adding Light to our surroundings and others will respond to it.  That still point deep within can guide us from day to day, from moment to moment, and promote a more peaceful, cooperative atmosphere as we go about our duties.  So may it be for each of us!
 

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Work for him was the very stuff of salvation and healing

Sonny Brewer | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

When Henry wove a rug, he wove from the depths of his spirit and from the fullness of his heart, and with the careful eye of a focused mind.  Directly across from his upright loom, at eye level on the concave wall of the hut, Henry had lettered a small sign for his own inspiration: BY THEIR WORKS YE SHALL KNOW THEM.  And more, it was a reminder that his remission from consumption, he believed, had come as a consequence of work with his hands.  Work for him was the very stuff of salvation and healing.  For that reason, whenever he should write or type or spell the word "work" for any reason, he would use an uppercase "W" as its beginning.
 

from THE POET OF TOLSTOY PARK by Sonny Brewer

To transform work into play

Nan Merrill | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

To learn to concentrate without effort
and to transform work into play
I need to have and hold a zone of silence
in my soul.

from Nan Merrill’s Journals

Those who have sought and found how to serve

Albert Schweitzer | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

Albert Schweitzer

The workplace as a source of creative subject matter and energy

Shaun McNiff | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

If artistic creations emerge from our lives and the ways in which we see the world, then it seems useful to engage the workplace as a source of creative subject matter and energy.  The job is the place where most of us spend time and expend effort each day.  It is the world we inhabit, and I believe we can make it better and more satisfying through the conscious use of the creative process.  . . .   Our creations and our lives are enhanced when we realize that everything in our environment is a source for imagination.
 
 

from “The Practice of Creativity in the Workplace” by Shaun McNiff, in THE SOUL OF CREATIVITY, ed. by Tona P. Myers

Working in cooperation with the deepest forces of life

Rick Jarow | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

If we open up to our vitality and to the sense of urgency that flows within us, we will have the pleasure of experiencing ourselves living and working in cooperation with the deepest forces of life.
 

from YOUR LIFE’S WORK by Rick Jarow

When one is conscious during work

undefined | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

It is not vast quantities of mechanical work that appeals to the Divine, but it is the link with the divine consciousness established through that work that matters.  This consideration of the spirit in which the work is done is of the utmost relevance to all of us who want to progress toward divine consciousness.  When one is conscious during work, that quality of consciousness is naturally imparted to what one is working with or upon.  Such work retains the vibration of that person and they link others immediately with that cause.
 

from THE YOGA OF WORK by M.P. Pandit

If only he could work faster

Susan Vreeland | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

If only he could work faster.  Yet if he did work faster, how could he produce paintings grounded in deep beds of contemplation, the only way living things could be stilled long enough to understand them?  And wasn't everything he painted--a breadbasket, a pitcher, a jewelry box, a copper pan--wasn’t it all living?
 

from THE GIRL IN HYACINTH BLUE by Susan Vreeland

The manner in which we carry out all our work

The Monks of New Skete | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

The manner in which we carry out all our work has a direct bearing on our spiritual health.
 

The Monks of New Skete

To do work carefully and well

Thomas Merton | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

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.
 

from NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION by Thomas Merton

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

Iain Pears | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

"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."
 

Iain Pears

Work that is being done attentively and well

Miriam Therese Winter | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

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.
 

from OUT OF THE DEPTHS by Miriam Therese Winter

Not fatigued from overwork

Marv and Nancy Hiles | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

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.
 

from All the Days of My Life, by Marv and Nancy Hiles

No one is useless

Charles Dickens | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else.
 

Charles Dickens

The many work for the One

R. L. Wing | September 2011 (Vol. XXIV, No. 8)

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.
 

R. L. Wing