73: Serve
Following a full weekend, I'm feeling quiet today.
Still, I want to share a brief note on something that's very important to me: service.
It's the backbone of my coaching work. It's the spirit that infuses every conversation I have with every client and prospective client. It's the subtext in nearly all of the emails I send, and it's the legacy I hope to leave behind when I'm gone.
In addition to being a source of meaning and purpose for me, service, generally speaking, is a thing that changes the world for good.
On the website of The King Center, Coretta Scott King writes of her husband:
Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we "will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. Life's most persistent and nagging question, he said, is 'what are you doing for others?'" he would quote Mark 9:35, the scripture in which Jesus of Nazareth tells James and John "…whosoever will be great among you shall be your servant; and whosoever among you will be the first shall be the servant of all." And when Martin talked about the end of his mortal life in one of his last sermons, on February 4, 1968 in the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, even then he lifted up the value of service as the hallmark of a full life. "I'd like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others," he said. "I want you to say on that day, that I did try in my life…to love and serve humanity."
So, I ask you: What is the most powerful way I can be of service to you? (Not necessarily as a coach—though that's fine, too—but as a fellow human.)
Hit 'reply' and tell me what comes up for you. I know it can be hard to ask for help, but if I'm offering it first, before you have to ask, maybe you can imagine yourself accepting it.
With love,
Helen xx
Fieldnotes
Devoured pizza with Kitty and Danny; made pretend salsa and guacamole with Zane, in his IKEA kitchen; gallivanted with Mom and Dana; found the shirts I'd been looking for; went to Taby's with Stacie; gave myself grace; reconnected with Holland; reconnected with Jenny, who's now a mom of two; visited with Lauren, Kelly, and Kitty, and met all the babies; ran into Connie at the train station; brunched with Kaylin and Rob, then gallivanted around the city; bought a new winter coat (30% off!) that fits my shoulders; cheered because the Packers won
Links
These stars at Descanso Gardens (a place I happened to learn about just recently via our friend, Wendy)
You can't accomplish anything without context.
MAV asks herself good questions. I plan to borrow them.
And, my favorite thing I read this week: "We often argue that we don’t choose our time obligations, so we’re stuck in a permanent time deficit and that’s just the way life is. Bills need to be paid. The body needs sleep. The dogs need walking. We don’t have time for all these obligations, yet we can’t get rid of them. But I think that’s mostly just a bad faith tactic we use to relieve ourselves from having to disappoint others, give up on dreams that aren’t working, and make other bold but nerve-wracking lifestyle moves. Besides, if we’re constantly failing to meet some of our obligations, it can’t be true that they must be done." (The whole piece is brilliant; click through and read it in its entirety.)
Curios
We had a light snow two nights ago, and this was what greeted me yesterday morning when I looked up through the skylights in my parents' living room. Snowy contrails. As though someone turned our roof into a zen garden and set about raking neat rows. It was wonderful.