How can I be of service?

This is a question that has guided much of my own practice for the past 15 years. Why?

Because giving didn’t come easy to me. Perhaps it did as a child but as I grew and I became desperate for my own freedom, experienced the struggle of being a young person trying to make ends meet, be a single Mum, go to work, pay the bills, have a social life, stave off loneliness, get by, all without a strong, bigger spiritual perspective, I didn’t understand that being of service is often the answer to it all.

Being in service breeds connection. It is as simple as that. And this week I had another great reminder how true this is.

Last June 2023, A car pulled up out the front of our farm. As I approached an older man got out and explained to me that this had been his grandparents place through his childhood.

Also in the car was his sister and their partners. I invited them in. They wandered around and they cried.

A month later John called me. Very politely he asked if I would be open to having them back for a family reunion. Of course I said yes. It's not my land, it wasn't their land and memories of place are a strong and important part of who we become.

Fast forward a year and from Casino, Newcastle and Perth they came. A family who hadn't caught up altogether for as long as any of them could remember. Brought together by country, sharing stories and photos, correcting each others memories and sitting in silence staring at the river.

(This is what just 50 years of connection looks like, imagine the connection of 50 000!)

To have this wonderful feeling in experiencing their joy, was all very little effort for a very big payoff. These are the things that bring us peace in a world where peace is so disrupted. And opportunities exist all around us each and every day.

Being of service is part of the discipline of happiness - of choosing to commit to a different narrative that connects rather than separates, that creates friendships instead of loneliness, that brings contentment in a world of confusion.

I am still a long way off from being effortlessly selfless but I’m a bloody long way from where I began. We are all masterpieces in progress.

Lissie

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