Too Cold and Work

No need for ice during winter here in Boise, really good ice cold water comes right from the tap. Even the Idaho native grocery checker was complaining this morning about the cold. She agreed with me that there could at least be snow on the ground if it was going to be this cold so it would look pretty. It's been 10 degrees below normal and has not reached 30 degrees for a week and I'm tired of it. I have to admit the cold is affecting my discipline and motivation.

Probably because I licensed my own business, I received a solicitation from the National Association of Professional Women. If you receive one, it is a scam. If you make the mistake of sending them a response with your phone number before you find out it is a scam, like I did, be sure not to send them any money. The solicitation says free membership, which it is not.

Next film was Secretariat. It's not an award winner, but I cried through half of the movie. Horses mixed with following your heart or your dreams was too much for me. Then, How to Tame Your Dragon, which was a nicely animated film with a good story. I had trouble with the dragon main character, which most of the time looked like a fish to me, but I loved all the dragon drawings at the end.

The next enlightenment topic is Work, with an excerpt from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran,

"Then a ploughman said, Speak to us of Work.
And he answered, saying:

You work that you may keep pace with
the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger
unto the seasons, and to step out of life's
procession, that marches in majesty and
proud submission towards the infinite.

When you work you are a flute through
whose heart the whispering of the hours
turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and
silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Always you have been told that work is
a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work
you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream,
assigned to you when the dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you
are in truth loving life,

And to love life through labour is to be
intimate with life's innermost secret.

But if in your pain you would call birth an
affliction and the support of the flesh a curse
written upon your brow, than I answer
that naught but the sweat of your brow
shall wash away that which is written.

You have been told that life is darkness,
and in your weariness you echo what
was said by the weary.
And I say that life is indeed a darkness
save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is love;
And when you work with love you bind
yourself to yourself, and to one another,
and to God.

And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads
drawn from your own heart, even as if your
beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even
as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap
the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved
were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with
a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead
are standing about you and watching.

Often have I heard you say, as if speaking
in sleep, "He who works in marble, and
finds the shape of his own soul in the stone,
is nobler that he who ploughs the soil.
And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it
on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more
than he who makes the sandals for our feet."
But I say, not in sleep but in the over-
wakefulness of noontide, that the wind
speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks
than to the least of all the blades of grass;
And he alone is great who turns the voice
of the wind into a song made sweeter by
his own loving.

Work is love made visible."

The author of Wisdom of the Ages reduces this poem to three lines. The above is most of the poem, although I cut off the end after, "Work is love made visible." I love The Prophet and am supremely annoyed to have one of Gibran's poems reduced down to three lines in a book that is supposed to include appreciating poetry, but maybe that is partly because this is a touchy subject for me today.

How many of us go to jobs every day that we hate? Is having a job that you love, or doing work that you love, a luxury? I got my first job at 16 so I could get that car and then I needed the job to afford the car, and so it began. I loved my job at Westwood Studios, it never really felt like a job and I never set the alarm in the morning and I never checked the clock at work. My favorite job was my mural painting job, although that was partly because I never saw my boss.

I suppose if I was a good Buddhist I would do every job with love, or at least mindfully, but hey, some jobs just suck and the best you can do is your best while still holding on to your soul. If you do not like your work, the author points out you have two choices, change what you are doing, or change how you feel about what you are doing. Boy, I already heard that a whole lot. I think the best I did in a job I hated was to find some humility. Once humility turned into humiliation it was time to go.

You do what you have to do in order to survive. I learned enough humility to go find any job today that will help me pay the rent and stay here. But if work is love made visible, then my painting is my work, and it needs to make me an income. But then, I need to be practical, I need to get out there and maybe one thing will lead to another, oh no, I already did the humility lesson, I don't want to do it again, round and round I go.