What Do You Love about Life?

You may recall that one of the Angels that we honor in practicing the message of the Essene Gospels is the Angel of Work.

When I first read that my thoughts went to, “We have to honor our nine-to-five? What if we hate it?”

From this perspective, I took heart in the part of the short reading for this Angel that says,

“For the honest work of humble hands
 Is a daily prayer of thanksgiving.”

That sentence offered me some reassurance that even if the “work” I did seemed simple, if it was done honestly and with good intention, it sounded like it would still be appreciated by God.

Yet lately I’ve been pondering the word, “work.” I made a notation in the margin of my Essene Gospel book that in the Introduction to Gnostic Hebrew Qabal book, it sounded like “work” could more mean “striving.” For me, this expanded the meaning to include things that may not be actual accomplishments, but perhaps more the steps we take towards doing a right thing. After all, there’s the saying that even baby steps, when taken repeatedly over time, can get us to the top of Mt. Everest. Were we to abandon our intention to just take the next step, hour by hour, day by day, we would not achieve our goal. And yet, if we don’t make it to the top of the mountain, is having that goal and doing all that we could to get as far as we did not noteworthy?

So here’s where I’m at now with the Angel of Work. I’ve been attending some spiritual classes recently. The facilitator has asked in the last couple of meetings, “What gets you up in the morning?”
What motivates us to start a new day?  In the Jewish tradition, a prayer is said to God upon awakening that thanks Him for returning the soul to the body so that we can have life for another day.

We have been given the blessing of another day. What is our “work” going to be? How do we honor our God for this gift of a new day?

How about by doing our “work?” What is our passion? What gives us a sense of accomplishment or gratification? It may not be our nine-to-five (unfortunately, for most of us, our jobs are not what ignites our enthusiasm for life). If our passion is not our job, how can we allow some time in our day to do what really floats our boat? Perhaps a little time in the garden…  Watching the sunset….  Actually listening to our neighbor after we ask, “How are you today?”….  Spending that extra time playing with the children….  Making a donation – even if small – to our favorite charity…  Going out with our dog(s) and throwing a ball for them….

Work is not supposed to be about drudgery.  Find something today to bring a smile to your face so when you hit the sack tonight you can think, “Thank you, God, for this day. I’m so glad I noticed that beautiful flower when I took the evening walk around the park with the kids. And the sound of their laughter as they went down the slide opened my heart. For these things, it was a good day. Help me to notice more of your blessings in the days to come.”