What you need to do is think of work as “vocation.”
This word may seem stilted in its tone, but it has a wisdom within it.
It comes from the Latin word for calling, which comes from the word for voice. In those meanings it touches on what work really should be.
It should be something that calls to you as something you want to do, and it should be something that gives voice to who you are and what you want to say to the world.
+Kent Nerburn Once we have accepted our call, we do not look for payment, reward, or advancement because we have found our soul gift… To come with our lives as an offering is quite different from the seeking of a career, security, status or title.
+Father Richard Rohr
The month of September usually reminds me of the Labor Day holiday observed in the USA and Canada, and I’m especially reminded of it after watching the 2024 Summer Olympics televised on the American and Canadian channels. I feel that I’m still looking at the world through the five Olympic rings that were such a part of each and every broadcast. How can I not think of labor after seeing the tremendous efforts made by so many of the world’s athletes in game after game after game? I certainly applauded those who achieved the coveted gold, silver, and bronze medals, and I also applauded those athletes who did their best and for the most part seemed thrilled to just be in the Olympics whether they “won” or not.
I really consider them all winners to have answered the call, the “vocation,” to work so hard, to labor so long to become the best of who they could be in whatever sport they felt called to participate in over the years. Father Rohr writes about finding our “soul gift,” and I really felt that we witnessed women and men who realized they had found their soul gift. They may have wanted a reward, a medal, and recognition, but they seemed to be at peace with the fact that they had the privilege of participating in such a world event and had the opportunity to meet and compete with others who had also found their soul gift.
We are not all Olympians. We may feel that we are not called to be one, but we can develop an attitude toward work, play, and life in general where we are aware that whatever we are doing is the biggest thing in our life at the time we are doing it.
Dale Turner tells this story about Arturo Toscanini, the great conductor, and I think it teaches us a lesson about just what is our calling, our soul gift: On Toscanini’s eightieth birthday, someone asked his son, Walter, what his father considered his most important achievement. The reply was, “For him there can be no such thing. Whatever he happens to be doing at the moment is the biggest thing in his life—whether it is conducting a symphony or peeling an orange.” I like his attitude and hope to remember this when I get home in a few minutes and peel a peach for some peaches and cream!
Blessings on all our labors, and may we be able to see our work as a calling and even as our soul gift.
Sister Mary Thill is a Sylvania Franciscan Sister. She can be reached at mthill@sistersosf.org.
