“There’s a wonderful story set in medieval times in which a man sees a laborer walking by with a wheelbarrow and asks what he is doing. “Can’t you see, I’m pushing a wheelbarrow,” the laborer replies. Another man comes by doing the same thing and he, too, is asked, “What are you doing?” He replies, “Can’t you see, I’m performing the work of God; I’m building Chartres Cathedral.”
The same activity, but very different levels of awareness. The second man has invested his work fatefully – connected to a greater purpose – and thereby rendered his life meaningful. It’s not what you do in life that is most important; rather, it’s a question of what consciousness you bring to the activity. Whether you are pushing a wheelbarrow or heading a corporation is really not the point. Who is doing it and what consciousness is brought forth?”
– excerpted from “Living Your Unlived Life: Coping with unrealized dreams and fulfilling your purpose in the second half of life” by Robert A. Johnson and Jerry M. Ruhl, Ph.D., page 200.
Leave a comment