Work
And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn
From your heart, even as if your beloved
Were to wear that clothe
It is to build a house with affection,
Even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house
It is to charge all things your fashion with a breadth of your own spirit
Work is love made visible.
For if you bake bread with indifference,
you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger
and if you grudge the crushing of the grapes,
your grudge distils a poison in the wine
And if you sing though as angels,
And love not the singing,
You muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night
-Khalil Gibran
Work must be a source of fulfillment. Work must create the smile and the strong urge to leave the bed and go accomplish the daily task. The greatest reward is not the paycheck, but the sense that our work is doing something to make a difference.
And if your current job makes you think of the words suffering, boredom, frustration, angst and bitterness, it is time to browse Jobstreet and the classified ads.
But before you do that, you must first check what you really want to do.
Write the things you love to do. The things that make you feel excited and enthusiastic. Do these things exist in your current work? And what will guarantee that these things will be in your next work?
Or perhaps you want your work, but there are also other things you must pursue. Then you must be willing to pay the price. Some people are creating barriers to their happiness. They want to go to the moon, but they are too afraid to abandon earth. Each dream has a price. Are you willing to pay the price in order to get the source of your happiness and fulfillment?
Aristotle said you are what you repeatedly do. If you are repeatedly doing the work that is not you, well, the choice is yours. You have the freedom to do the work that expresses your personality. You cannot say, I have no choice. You create your own happiness. That is your source of power, the ability to decide and determine the course of your life. You are the captain of your destiny.
