K was having a conversation with our son James yesterday afternoon. She was on her cell phone and I could hear most of both ends of the conversation. He had the day off but had called to tell us about a dish he had prepared in the restaurant the night before….He was all exited about it, blissful, and finally he said that in spite of the long hours and sometimes grueling work and relatively low pay as a chef, he was so glad to get to do what he does, that he was so thankful that his work involved creativity…and that this creativity doesn’t fall only to him but exists among the community in which he works…He says that most days ideas of new possibilities fly around the kitchen…most nights he says patrons thank him and his co-workers for their inspired work, continually in the making… We make a difference in their lives he said. It was just good to hear him happy.
There was a time in the mind of the entrepreneurial psyche when the ethos was that the higher the pay in the work one procured, the more likely one was to be happy; that success itself was measurable by how much money one made. I think that trend is changing. I hear often from young adults the desire for a vocation that matches their creative gifts, regardless of the pay….All of us are made to create; to be creative is to live into our God likeness…Of course there are myriad ways to be creative…We just need to pay attention, so we don’t miss the opportunity when it comes along for us to make something…to author a change of the way of things….to engender change is to create, to make something…a meal, a high metaphor of this sacred process.
Joseph Campbell years ago coined the phrase… “follow your bliss.” I believe that is our life’s work… but not a mindless and selfish pursuit of happiness and pleasure, but a mindful disposition of giving ourselves away to a greater good…a thorough practice of the art of who we are, who we are created to be…and this work is by no means a solitary enterprise…It is corporate and mutual…The imagination is stronger when in enlightened collaboration…And I believe also that we don’t have to go out and find this “bliss.” It will find us in its time, and we’ll recognize it when we see it…Ours is to pay attention to its coming until we are found…and we’ll make something…make a difference… and the world will be better for it, and true happiness will abound at last.
