“Work is love made visible”

Having persisted in assembling a desk chair with sheer will and determination and yes for me, even fearlessness, I am inspired to share some Gibran prose on work. As I reflect on it, I realize that I was largely influenced by my father to love and cherish work. He was an ardent worker and willing to do anything to attain his goals, and learned how to master many trades. From Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet:

Then a ploughman said, Speak to us of Work

And some of the gems from his eloquent response …. 

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 tuns to music.

And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret

And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God

When I shared the content of this blog with my daughter, she reminded me of what I had been thinking of but had not yet found a way to include. That is of the different class structures and the relative privilege of working at something we love. This is a bigger subject than that which will be addressed in this blog, however I believe it is worth sharing what is part of a larger picture of this consciousness as so beautifully rendered by Kibran ~

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy  

Peace to those who toil, may we one day come to know the cessation of suffering and the joy of determination realized, and of the gift of of loving work ….