Working to Awaken


© M. Williams

Each morning I crawl out of bed at six thirty, pull on a pair of worn blue jeans and head to the barn to feed, turn out and clean the stalls of the twenty or so horses with whom my mate and I share our lives. I tote the loaded feed buckets two by two down the shed rows, dodge the teeth and feet of thousand pound animals anxious to get at the breakfast I bring and head back for refills, trip after trip. I fit fly masks and halters on excited horses eager to reach the relative freedom of their paddocks, and I walk them, sometimes prancing and rearing, to the fields. When the feeding and turn out are done, I man my pitchfork and wheelbarrow to heave and lift my way towards my own late breakfast. In the winter I shiver my way through the morning routine; in the summer the sweat drips into my eyes.

So why do I do it? Why do I huff and puff, day after day, week after week, when I could easily make a living at something less physically demanding?

Quite simply, I do it to wake up.

We all have to work at something; that's the way of survival in this particular reality. But when the task is tedious and/or strenuous, we have a tendency to labor with a sense of resentment. We think, "Why do I have to do this job? I hate this work. I wish the day were over." And so we begin thinking ahead to the time when the work is done and we are free to do something more enjoyable. This feeling of resentment keeps us from living in the present moment-as we are constantly considering the future point at which the day will end-and thus we remain asleep throughout the entire experience, letting time pass us by.

Yet work is an excellent method for cultivating awareness, if we'd only take advantage of it. Certainly hard work challenges our comfort, and if we can avoid doing it we will, but that very discomfort we avoid can allow the mind to free itself from the confines of habitual existence and reach a state of higher consciousness. Like the runner that breaks through the wall when he thinks himself unable to go another step, our consciousness, too, can experience a sort of second wind and break through the wall of stultifying dullness and misery of the task to gain insight and awareness from it instead.

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages

6.   Sep 24, 2001 5:49 PM
Yes...We are all teachers...and we are all students...with a main purpose to learn to love ourselves, so we can then love others :-) :-o So let's lighten up...
my first visit...
Many links on my web ...

-- posted by knightcat50


5.   Sep 23, 2001 6:49 AM
Mary, I don't know about being "right"! I'm
not trying to claim I am an expert when it
comes to New Age philosophy, only that I am
searching for answers like so many of
us.

It is tr ...


-- posted by jamenta


4.   Sep 2, 2001 1:44 PM
In response to message posted by jamenta:

You know what, John? Perhaps you're right! Your voice here is one of several th ...


-- posted by MWilliams


3.   Aug 31, 2001 5:06 PM
Mary,

Thanks for your reply.

You wrote:

> "I’m sorry my message there didn’t resonate with you,
> but not every idea is viable for every person.

On the contrary! I ...


-- posted by jamenta


2.   Aug 31, 2001 11:39 AM
In response to message posted by jamenta:

John,

Thanks for your input on my article. I’m sorry my message there d ...


-- posted by MWilliams





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