Life Work

by Dion

 

When I worked at night as a school janitor sometimes I could not remember if I had cleaned the room I had been in before. It is not just the repetition of my mind. The action of my work is interesting to me. Though it will be a mess again everyday, there is hope, there is joy in just doing it. Now working in the day as an elementary school day custodian, I read books to the kindergarten children. I speak with the children, parents, teachers, workmen and neighbors.  I order supplies, rake leaves, fix things and simply enjoy being of help. I feel the earth in my hands and the sky on my face and I am free. The days and the nights blur together. Friday afternoons and Monday mornings are one. There is an ecstasy and a serenity that is the same. Now more and more it feels like dancing. I love my work. It is when someone says thank you to me I can truly say in my heart, “it is nothing”. This is action with contemplation. Skill in action. To be a man of action without ego attachment. Truly happiness with the inner self. When I work I see mountain meadows and bursting suns. I hear music and water flowing. Sometimes I am silence. This is the truth.

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{All Dionysos Maskaleris writings copyright or copyright pending}

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I slept and dreamt that life was joy. 

I awoke and saw that life was service. 

I acted and behold, service was joy.

-Rabindranath Tagore

 

When you see a sharp stone on a path trodden by many bare feet, you remove it, not because you have been asked, but because you feel for another – it does not matter who he is, and you may never meet him. 

-Krishnamurti

 

“To be a man of action without (ego) attachment to the fruits (outcome) of the action.”

-The Bhagavad–Gita

 

“If you touch one thing with deep awareness, 
you touch everything.” –Thich Nhat Hanh