Squeezing the Fruit

I've noticed something about practitioners. I've noticed how we love to go on and on about how long we've been up, how much we've cooked for our ancestors or spirits, how often we pray and how many burns we have from melted wax and incense. How many dishes we've washed, how many floors we've swept. How many altars we've cleaned and how many wine glasses we've filled. How many candles we've lit and distances we've walked.

It's very true. It is difficult being any type of serious practitioner. You have requirements, demands, a schedule, quality control, time constraints, money constraits, a life to balance, a family to feed and care for, preparation time, productivity that bares on you-that YOU put there-and if you make physical items you have to complete those too! All while listening to the worst problems and situations you've heard of and answering dozens and dozens of e-mails a day. And all of that last part is done for FREE.

Just like EVERYONE else. Except everyone else is working 2 or 3 jobs, and none of those are a job they chose. They don't love any of those jobs. None of those jobs were what they were dreaming about from the age of 12.

I chose this life. I knew this is what I would do from the time I was a child. I have ZERO to complain about. Though I do occasionaly, I am human.

My point is, EVERYONE has facets of their jobs that other's take for granted, that other's know nothing about. I don't know the struggles of a mechanic or a lawyer because I'm not one. So what's the point about going on and on about the overlooked and underpaid parts of my job when spiritual workers themselves can not bother to see the other side of it? I don't hear the grocer bitching about me coming in feeling and squeezing all their fruit to find the perfect offering. I don't hear the herb shop owner ranting when I come in and clear them out of lavender or hyssop in the winter when I can't harvest my own. My neighbor's don't get upset when I pick their roses, lilacs or pokeberries, Do they have a right to? Absolutely. Maybe they go home and do it, hell maybe they have a blog about it. I don't know. What we DO is not the point. What we OUGHT to is.

The difference is, when we choose a job in spiritual sector we take on certain, spoken or unspoken, vows. Like trying not to complain. Trying not to speak ill of others. Abstaining from gossip. Looking for the beauty in life. Living responsibly. Not seeking validation or feeding our ego. Abstaining from violence. Encouraging others, etc.

Complaining doesn't accomplish much except for drawing attention to ourselves and our imaginary plite. More importantly, it weakens all of the other vows we've placed upon ourselves. Complaints ARE an act of violence because they do not encourage others-they wear others down. They make others look at the lacking in their lives instead of the abundance. People like to be alike, they like to comiserate. Others will find something wrong so they have something to talk about with you. Be aware of what you're words are leading others to focus on.

Really, it's just not as hard or as bad as we make out. There are those out there, many of them our clients, who we know for a FACT have it a hell of a lot worse than we do.

Do our clients really want to hear us bitching about burning our fingers on candles? Candles that were made and are being burned to help that client find a place to live because they, along with their 3 children, are homeless?!

In my nearly 20 years experience, if your spiritual worker has more to complain about that you do, head for the mother fuckin hills. I am deciding for you right now; you ain't got time for that.

A spiritual worker should have their shit together. Their bills should be paid, they should have a steady place to live, healthy relationships and over all stability. How are you going to take you car to a mechanic whose car is always broke down? You're not. The same applies to a spiritual worker. Any worker complaining about not being able to keep an apartment, pay bills, or failing relationships is not one for you to take advice from on your finances or love life, you feel me?

I love my life. I think it's evident in my work. I try to share my feelings and workings with my clients here, and via social media, so you all can get a feel for what I do and how I do it. Above all, I try to do this with grace and humility. I love people and I love when they share thier lives with me. Even those who don't care for me or my work. I certainly would never want someone to stifle my opinion.

This is one reason I can't charge for advice and why I try to be an open book. Relationships are worth nothing if they aren't reciprocal and I try to achive this with readers and clients. I can't put a price on you pouring your heart out to me with intimate details, so I can't charge you for the eyes and ears I already possess to hear and read your lives.

I make a lot of candles. I prepare a lot of foods for offerings. I light a lot of charcoal. I wash a lot of dishes and scrub a lot of floors. I walk far to dig in the dirt; I rip out roots, I harvest, I grind. Everything I eat tastes likes perfume because my hands are constantly saturated in oils. I walk far, with a heavy bag and broom, to clean graves. I pray. I pray. I pray some more. This is a fraction of a day.

Sounds pretty good to me. Not much like work at all.
It's not work if you love it.
To complain is to seek validation. Only your ego needs validation. Your spirit will thrive without it.

Everyone's work is a piece of fruit. You can't get nourishment from the juice and complain about having to squeeze it first.

“If you can quit, quit. If you can't quit, stop complaining - this is what you chose.” 
― J.A. Konrath