Sacred Purpose

An explorer was walking in a distant country when he saw 3 workers breaking stones.
He goes to the first worker and asks him, "Can you tell me what you are doing here?"
"But don't you see?" the worker replies, annoyed. "We are breaking stones!"
The explorer goes to the second worker and very politely asks him, "Can you tell me what you are doing here?"
"I'm working" replies the second worker. "I break stones to make money, to feed my family and to send my children to school."
The explorer continued to the third worker where he asked him the exact same question.
"Do you see this mountain?" the worker asked him with warmth and pride. "At the top of it are the foundations of a building. In this place, we are building a temple!"

How do we perceive our life? From the perspective of which worker do we experience our everyday life? What intention, energy, emotion, vision do we put behind what we do? The 3 workers, on the outside, were doing exactly the same activity. We can do things without intention, executive and unconscious. We can do them procedurally, as a mere means to some practical end, or... we can experience our action as having a higher, sacred purpose... It can be connecting with ourselves or those around us, remembering gratitude, giving, cultivating, compassion, acceptance, kindness...

Let us welcome the coming of spring with this exercise. The times we live in have cultivated an approach of survival, fear and self-protection rather than appreciation and expansion.
Let us explore what it means to live deeply connected.
Let's seek depth of presence and experience, as well as spiritual nourishment in utterly mundane activities.
Let us understand what we do as a sacred dance between our inner and outer worlds.
Let us 'dress up' our ordinary actions as intentional rituals of connection and well-being.
Let this be a call to heal our loss of connection to ourselves, to others and to our spiritual identities.

The story of the workers reminds us that it is not what we do but how we do it that matters most. With the right approach, each moment has the potential to become a powerful experience of refuge and meaning.