Are you here to Love?
Are you here to Serve?
Are you here to Create?
Are you here to Enjoy?
Are you here to Learn?
Are you here to Achieve?
Are you here to Heal?
Are you here to Forgive?
When we listen to ego, we learn to hate, be selfish, destroy and suffer.
When we follow the world, we may learn confusion, failure, disease and judgment.
When we conform to others, we may stay ignorant, defended, prejudiced, and separate.
When we let history teach us, we may isolate, go to war, become cynical or political.
There are an infinite number of paths.
Each path has its own destination.
Our destiny may be predetermined in the final outcome, but can be delayed by our choice.
When we listen to our heart, we know we want peace and happiness, love and trust.
When we follow our fearful thinking, we may be conflicted and sad, resentful and suspicious.
We can choose to quickly forgive our mistakes and others or we can hang on to being right.
We can step away from being hurt and angry and choose again for healing and learn to be responsible.
Our calling is more than a job, it is a whole life purpose.
Our calling is more than a mission, it is a way of being.
Our calling is more than a temporary placement, it is the fulfillment of our lifetime.
Our calling is the hope, faith and charity we seek to experience in every encounter.
We have the opportunity to correct our course at any point along the way.
We have the chance to choose which direction at every crossroads.
We have the blessing to behold the healing of every missed direction.
We have the gift of learning, laughing and letting go, as we choose once again for what we desire.
The blessing of our life is to be able and willing to take full responsibility for all we create.
When we hesitate and find someone or something to blame, we delay the awakening.
When we are open and willing to respond to everything with love, we are quickened and awakened.
When we forgive all judgments on our chosen experiences, we see clearly what we prefer to experience.
Life is our calling.
Our focus is revealed as we look upon it with no judgment.
Our direction is made clear by experiences of happiness or pain, inner peace or confusion.
Our fulfillment comes when we are willing to be grateful for All we have and All we Are.
Give yourself the gift of receiving the blessing of your life choices.
Fully appreciate all you learn and all you receive.
Correct your direction quickly and easily when it does not inspire and fulfill you.
Trust your path as you let love and gratitude lead the way.
Loving us as One as we all follow our path of Love and Gratitude, living our Truth our Way,
Betty Lue
Helping, Fixing, Serving
--by Rachel Remen (May 29, 2000)
Service is not the same as helping.
Helping is based on inequality, it's not a relationship between equals. When you help, you use your own strength to help someone with less strength. It's a one up, one down relationship, and people feel this inequality. When we help, we may inadvertently take away more than we give, diminishing the person's sense of self-worth and self-esteem.
Now, when I help I am very aware of my own strength, but we don't serve with our strength, we serve with ourselves. We draw from all our experiences: our wounds serve, our limitations serve, even our darkness serves. The wholeness in us serves the wholeness in the other, and the wholeness in life. Helping incurs debt: when you help someone, they owe you. But service is mutual. When I help I have a feeling of satisfaction, but when I serve I have a feeling of gratitude.
Serving is also different from fixing. We fix broken pipes, we don't fix people. When I set about fixing another person, it's because I see them as broken. Fixing is a form of judgment that separates us from one another; it creates a distance.
So, fundamentally, helping, fixing and serving are ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak; when you fix, you see life as broken; and when you serve, you see life as whole.
When we serve in this way, we understand that this person's suffering is also my suffering, that their joy is also my joy and then the impulse to serve arises naturally - our natural wisdom and compassion presents itself quite simply. A server knows that they're being used and has the willingness to be used in the service of something greater.
We may help or fix many things in our lives, but when we serve, we are always in the service of wholeness.
--Rachel Remen, from Zen Hospice