The 33rd in a series on my family tree
Prompt: Service
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Unforeseen circumstances threw me into full-time service in our horse barn this week, and so this will be short and, perhaps, a little philosophical.
The heart of service is a willingness and desire to help others. Interestingly enough, this desire begins in the willing heart and takes shape through a personal passion. For instance, if we love horses we’re usually eager and willing to serve and support their needs as well as those of the equestrian community. If we love travel we may find ourselves looking for a way to serve in the hospitality industry. If we love to sing we may look for a way to offer our gift as a service to the world. Generally speaking we serve whom, and what, we love because it fulfills our own need to feel served.
The healthy foundation for a life filled with service, by my reckoning, begins at home. The parent who nurtures his or her children provides a valuable service, as does the parent who works to put a roof over the family’s heads. Such devotion is an example to be observed by other family members who may choose to replicate it in their own individual way. Still, it seems to me it’s the intention or the motivation behind the service that renders its true meaning, and to me the purest essence of this is based in love. True love of self; love of family; love of community; and, love of country.
In the spirit of love we are willing to sacrifice much in the service of a cause greater than ourselves. Indeed, dying for one’s country or beliefs, may be considered the greatest service, and sacrifice, of all.
And yet any service, no matter how small, offered willingly and with love as its foundation is, in my humble opinion, service nobly rendered.
The Final Word
As we can never acknowledge enough the sacrifices of those who gave their lives for the preservation of democracy, I share once again the Active Service Record Sheet for my great uncle, Flight Sergeant Archibald Don Gordon, who did indeed, like millions of souls before and after him, give his all in the service of what he believed to be the greater good. ❦
©Dorothy E. Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2002 … Aimwell CreativeWorks
Shedding Light on the Family Tree 