Work is the Healer
It starts as a small thing.
There are moments I think we all have. Moments that provide a clearness about one’s life, and when you look back to that unclouded moment after many years, you observe a line that runs to the present.
One of those moments was when I was in my late teens reading a biography of Albert Schweitzer. I remember where I was sitting, how the late afternoon light was coming in the living room windows when I read this quote:
“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know; the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”
This was a new idea to me…happiness being linked to serving others.
I wrote the quote on a 3 x 5 index card and tucked it in my idea journal.
That day, I had no idea how I might serve others. Compared to Albert Schweitzer, whatever I might do seemed very small.
Now I know that serving others starts very small indeed.
I’ve seen it in a six-month old crawling to take a toy to another infant who wasn’t crawling just yet.
An 18-month-old picking up his toys.
A two-year-old singing to her baby brother.
A four-year-old pulling his grandmother’s suitcase to the car.
Acts of service start small and they grow with encouragement.
“Work,” in the words of Kahlil Gibran, “is love made visible.”
A recent survey showed that parents’ main concern is about their children’s mental well-being, and how to assist their emotional development.
I think the answer to their concern is simple, “Show your children how to serve others.”
Show children how to offer acts of kindness to their family members, friends and neighbors.
Realize, too, that at times what we might see as “getting into stuff” may actually be a child working to offer a gift of service.
Climbing on the cabinet to get a vase for flowers picked in the yard…and breaking the vase in the process.
Mixing flour and water in a bowl to make pancakes and spilling most of it on the floor.
Mopping the floor and leaving puddles of water everywhere.
Helping our children express their inherent love of the people in their lives, through work, is how we assist our children in building a healthy person—physically, emotionally, socially and mentally.
“Work is love made visible.”
I invite you to read this Kids Talk Series: Practical Life for Living.
Join me for a Kids Talk Workshop…
