As I open a new page in my life and transition from one job to the next there's quite a bit of a paradigm shift from what I've done to what I am doing now.
In short I took a job as a bicycle messenger and quit my job as an organizer (although I stiil put in a few hours when I can to assist in the religious organizing aspect of the campaign that I was working on with nurses wanting to organize at one of the area hospitals.
It was a difficult decision for me to make in the end.. I've always thought that there are two very important aspects to any job; most important at least in my opinion is to make sure that my occupation is doing something to progress and alleviate the pain and suffering of others around me... After all, if your not doing anything that is helping others what the impotence for doing it in the first place?
I think this belief stems from my belief in the fact that the times in which I feel the most spiritually connected and ultimately happy are the moments when am in direct union and solidaridity with the people that need it most. Having a job that fulfills that solidarity is crucial to the creation of a better society and world, but also it puts your mind and body to work for good!
However, my decision to become a bicycle messenger has largely challenged these assumptions that I once had. Why afterall did I have this intense longing to preform this job instead of the one as a labor organizer after all? Now I deliver packages from law firm to law firm which contents may be for the most part questionable in moral standards at best.
Through it though I have found myself instensly happy and fulfilled, afterall I get paid to rode my bike and I don't even have to race if I don't want too!
So in the end what to make of this decision? A feeling of an unfulfilled dream, a job that wasn't nearly as stressful, a yearning to get out of the office? Or maybe a feeling that happiness and the capability to help others in ways that didn't seem so direct, that there are people at your job who you can be in solidarity with, that there when you are happy with what your doing, you can show your happiness and spread it to others by doing great things outside your job... that maybe in order to be able to help others the greatest involves you being the happiest that you can be, that when others are hurting and suffering it requires you to be on top of yourself to be able to effectively help!
Since I took this job last week I have found that I am much happier and in the end I can actually do more to help others... I guess in the end the moral is to do what you love no matter what and the byproduct will allow us to be the sunshine in all the lives of others that we touch! :)
However, my decision to become a bicycle messenger has largely challenged these assumptions that I once had. Why afterall did I have this intense longing to preform this job instead of the one as a labor organizer after all? Now I deliver packages from law firm to law firm which contents may be for the most part questionable in moral standards at best.
Through it though I have found myself instensly happy and fulfilled, afterall I get paid to rode my bike and I don't even have to race if I don't want too!
So in the end what to make of this decision? A feeling of an unfulfilled dream, a job that wasn't nearly as stressful, a yearning to get out of the office? Or maybe a feeling that happiness and the capability to help others in ways that didn't seem so direct, that there are people at your job who you can be in solidarity with, that there when you are happy with what your doing, you can show your happiness and spread it to others by doing great things outside your job... that maybe in order to be able to help others the greatest involves you being the happiest that you can be, that when others are hurting and suffering it requires you to be on top of yourself to be able to effectively help!
Since I took this job last week I have found that I am much happier and in the end I can actually do more to help others... I guess in the end the moral is to do what you love no matter what and the byproduct will allow us to be the sunshine in all the lives of others that we touch! :)
