Opus Day 12: Nurture soul and spirit at work

[Barque]

“When soul and spirit come together creatively, you remain attached to the circumstances of your life - your family, your place, nature, your traditions - and you pursue your ideals. These two directions represent soul and spirit. You appreciate the simple pleasures and your deep connections with people, even as you explore the world in pursuit of your dreams.

But if you are afraid of life’s potential and hide out in the place where you grew up or in your family, or if you freeze your spirit in some ideology or belief system, you will have no vibrant soul and spirit to bring to your work. Both soul and spirit have to be alive, or else one will suffer from wounds to the other.
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Spirit always has a quality of transcendence, some way of going beyond the status quo. You may be building culture, making advancements in science, helping children move into the future, or creating a more ethical and just society. These are all spiritual qualities, insofar as they apply vision and a developed sense of values.

When spiritual aspects of work go unattended, the job becomes too local, too wrapped up in personal need, and makes life too complacent. It is stagnant and only practical. It doesn’t move into a better future or engage visionary aspects of living.”

Today’s Work: Nurture your soul at work. Photographs, plants, or personal knickknacks near your workstation may satisfy soul needs. To nurture your spirit, Thomas Moore recommends practicing meditation, or prayer, or initiating a social service such as collecting used clothing for distribution.

Share your responses with Barque readers, by replying to this discussion.

[Dr. Robert Klass]

These comments may not exactly fit today's work assignment, but I hope that they do fit in the larger context of this ongoing discussion. As I've been thinking about what we've been writing about, I thought that it might be useful to consider a specific example of a real life situation and look at how the consciousness, the soul and the spirit might view what is going on.

How about we consider a situation where somebody close to us has an illness that is potentially fatal? From what I can tell, sooner or later all of us are going to be involved with this part of life, and if we live long enough, we're going to be involved with it multiple times. From the point of view of the consciousness, the soul and the spirit, I think it might come down as follows:

Consciousness: I am aware right now that somebody close to me is going to die, and the best information that I have is that there is nothing I can do to stop it from happening.

Soul: I remember the good times I had with my friend and all of the things we did together. I will always have the memories of how important my friend has been in my life.

Spirit: I can know that all living things, including myself, are going to face death, and that is part of life. I can also use the love and friendship that has existed between us to make the world a better place, however that might manifest itself. The world is already a better place because of my friend has been here, and that doesn't have to end with death.

First of all, I hope that this example is not overly depressing, but, at the moment, I am faced with this situation, and I suspect that writing about it might help. I also do not want to suggest that the three responses I gave to how consciousness, soul and spirit might perceive this situation are the only responses that are possible. If anybody else has any comments and insights, I am looking forward to reading them. Aloha