If you have time to look it up (the song below) on Youtube, I suggest you also take a moment to reflect on its message especially in this advent season. I beg for your indulgence to talk something else as a way to take a break after all the hard work for the last eleven months. And I think that the best break that one could have is to spend a good part of it in solitude than in shopping or partying.
Here is the song:
In the morning of my life I shall look to the sunrise.
At a moment in my life when the world is new.
And the blessing I shall ask is that God will grant me,
To be brave and strong and true,
And to fill the world with love my whole life through.
And to fill the world with love
And to fill the world with love
And to fill the world with love my whole life through
In the noontime of my life I shall look to the sunshine,
At a moment in my life when the sky is blue.
And the blessing I shall ask shall remain unchanging.
To be brave and strong and true,
And to fill the world with love my whole life through
In the evening of my life I shall look to the sunset,
At a moment in my life when the night is due.
And the question I shall ask only I can answer.
Was I brave and strong and true?
Did I fill the world with love my whole life through?
I have to admit that sometimes I get to ask myself why we have to work so hard. And you probably get to ask the very same question to yourself and with the very same answer as mine. We work because we have a family to raise and some needs to meet.
We distill the idea of work in terms of its economic purpose. And that’s probably the reason why we are unhappy in the office or when we deal with our workmates. I believe work can be meaningful and worth our effort if we look at it with a higher purpose.
You may be doing perfunctory tasks in the office like encoding, receiving phone calls, sending documents, or perhaps assigned in an assembly line doing repetitive tasks all day. But you will find a sense of contentment and accomplishment if you look past the monotony of it all. That no work is insignificant if you see the results that have been put up altogether in a product or service. Or you can look at it this way, imagine yourself as part of a jigsaw puzzle. Alone as a piece does not make sense, but when all the pieces are joined together we form one great picture. Therefore, any labor put into a product or service translates a lot to the company and to its customers.
Finally, count your work as a blessing. If you think of your salary as representation of what your work is worth, you will never be fully satisfied of any kind of compensation. No salary can measure for real worth. So you can think of it as a gift. Gifts often come in small packages. Just because a gift is small does not always mean it’s cheap. If you grumble on the meagerness of your salary, think of it as an expression of sincere thankfulness for your contribution.
At the end of the day, what truly matters really is not really how much you get, but by how much love you have poured in your work. Your work represents your love for what you do but also for the love you have for the people who depend on you – maybe your family or a friend or neighbor in need.