Friday, October 2, 2009

Feeling Used and Abused? Reconciling the “Thankless Life”

There’s no use denying it. We all feel it from time to time, in this situation and that. When we’re used or abused, taken for granted, or do things ‘for love’ and there’s never ever really enough kudos for what we deserve. And the fact is we’re all party to this life-part of drudgery. So, what’s the main point of it? Well, if we don’t watch it, we’ll allow that drudgery to overwhelm us... it cuts away at our endurance for living.

We might as well get used to it—those thankless tasks—for they’ll remain. As long as our hearts beat and we breathe clean air we’ll find ourselves a general mix of sweet ‘n’ sour in life. This is congruent with our understanding of life, is it not?

But, the real point is around getting beyond the ‘thankless life’ of misery and complaint, and into the expansive life—the wise and wide open spaces—anyone can have provided they adhere to some pretty simple, yet transcendent, principles of living.

The simple principle is this: we should do these drudgeries for free and enjoy them for the freedom we have in doing them. This is not rocket science. We can do them to an ordinary quality, yet why would we not do them to an extraordinary quality?

Rather than mope, we could smile and be thankful for the hope of something better one hour or one day away—we must have hope! Haven’t you ever noticed that the hope of doing something fun and enjoyable almost eclipses the actual experience of doing it?

The thankless life is actually the best life all things considered. We are sowing for ourselves huge blessings. We are saving and not spending. Spiritually, we’re poor and inept—yet we stage for ourselves a future infinitely better off than right now.

© S. J. Wickham, 2009.

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