Do not undervalue the
work of the mind. The mind sees, and analyses, and works out how to
go on. It comprehends a thousand shades of meaning, sorts between
options, looks at the past to understand the future. It seeks to know
the divine, and to figure out how best to follow its leadings.
Do not undervalue the
work of the heart. Our lives would be grey and lifeless without the
love of parent and child, of brother and sister, of friends and of
lovers. The heart lets us care for one another and receive care in
our turn. It opens us to divine love and enables us to share it in
the world.
Do not undervalue the
work of the soul. To heighten our experience of the divine, it is not
enough simply to wait and hope. It takes work to develop our
connection, and it cannot be done with the mind alone. Our soul
reaches for the divine as the divine reaches to us.
Do not undervalue the
work of the hands. Our hands reach into the world and move things.
They change raw food into meals, fibre into cloth and garments, rough
wood into things we can use every day. They clean and they drive,
they mend and they make. Our hands keep us able to respond to the
divine, and they enable us to act in the world.
Mind, hands, spirit and
soul: all are needed. For an individual, or a community, to walk the
divine path, all sorts of work are needed. Sometimes more of one,
sometimes more of another; one person doing more of one work, another
person doing another. A community needs those who are comfortable and
competent in all sorts of work, even where it does not seem necessary
for the community to do that work for itself.
Written July 2016
