I've been looking at selfless service. The phrase itself is so laden with "good/right person" baggage that only recently have I been able to say it without an internal eye-roll and intimations of being a "goody-goody." In my exploration, I was able to disentangle ego's spin on selfless service from my actual experience.
Ego's spin...
Selfless service is what good people do to help others. Specifically,
- it's what good people do to help others. Don't believe that claptrap about the process being what counts! Performance measures and outcomes are what matter. Geesch! Everybody knows that.
- it's what good people do to help others. Since your goodness is iffy at best, you're not really a qualified candidate for selfless service. But you can continue to try to do good (and should!), and maybe someday, what you do will make you good.
- it's what good people do to help others. As the official Herald of Help, I get to decide what is helpful, who deserves help, when help is called for, and how to be appropriate in your helpfulness. If you want to live a life of service, you really need me to direct you.
- it's what good people do to help others. Just look at all those people who need help! You'd better get busy...no time to exercise, do yoga, eat well, or meditate. (Sigh) Okay, get a drink of water if you must (but Diet Coke is better). Then, get back to helping all those other people. And hurry! They need you!
My Actual Experience
We show up to whatever is in our life -- whatever we've committed to.
We do our best to be fully present with whatever is actually here in the physical, real, tangible world.
We respond promptly when something drops in to clean, communicate, do, or record.
We don't think much about "my life."
If we do all this, we may be living a life of selfless service. But we never know...
Gassho,
Rebecca