Category: Service

Living your calling at work (4/03/21)

JoeLeave a comment

(a Voice of Justice and a Listening Ear)

In various spiritual workshops, I’ve heard people ask how they can bring their calling or purpose to their job. I’ve struggled with that myself. As I’ve written, I believe that everyone is traveling their own unique path and as such I would never try to convert someone to my beliefs. That’s despite that fact that if you work in a non-religious setting, like the corporate world, there are laws against such.

Yet, since a good portion of your week is spent at your job, you want to bring your whole self to work. How do you do so? It’s simple. Live your calling at its most basic level by being a person of integrity, honesty, responsibility, and empathy.

I know that may not feel like it’s enough and it can be frustrating not to be able to freely and visibly live that calling 24/7. Ideally, we all want a job that reflects our calling and provides a livelihood. But it’s not always easy to find that and most of us don’t have the luxury of quitting our job until that new calling-based job appears.

Over the last many years in the corporate world though, I have seen and experienced times when providing the basics are desperately needed. How many of us have not seen examples of situations where profit is placed before people and where employees are sometimes treated as a liability. During those times, I have felt especially impelled to raise flags, and bring honesty, fairness, equality, and justice to all my interactions. Equally important for me, as a healer, is to provide a listening ear to coworkers who want to share their struggles, hopes, and fears. Simply, asking how they are doing, and truly listening, not offering advice, lets them know that they are seen.

Attuning to your experiences (3/20/21)

Joe2 Comments

I woke up at 4 am last night (the time people sometimes get spiritual messages) hearing a clear message that as I share my understandings, I must always start with sharing how my experiences led to them. What I share is not the result of an intellectual exercise but from tuning into my intuition and feelings about each experience. When I wrote about choosing your incarnation, I focused more on my ideas. So, I wanted to write a bit about the role of experience.

All of my beliefs and understandings are grounded in my experiences. For each, I identify what feelings come up, and what it reveals about me and my place in the world. I also consider if there is something to learn from it, especially in terms of future decisions. While my mind certainly plays a part in understanding my reactions, it is in service to the experience.

Let me give you an example. Some years back, I attended a 10-day therapeutic retreat to help heal some lingering traumas and let go of limiting beliefs. This was after I left the priesthood, still feeling my calling to serve, but unsure about how to live it out. During a session break, after telling the director about this, she took my hands in hers, looked me in the eyes, and said, Joe, you are a spiritual healer. My body, mind, and spirit instantly responded. I felt energized and relieved. I knew, at the deepest level, that that was my calling. That one experience led me to where I am today and creating my website.

Our experiences are the source of what we believe and how we live. As such, I’d invite you to take some time to attune to yours. Reflect on them, and how they shape you and form your beliefs. Then, assess whether they confirm your current direction, call you to make different choices, or even challenge you to try something new. Doing so can lead you to interesting places.