Dear Jessica Brennan,
One of the things that I am grateful for regarding how I was raised, was the lesson in service that I learned very young. Regardless of the motivation that drove this need to be of service, my parents were servers.
We were never to ask for service to come our way though. There was an unworthiness that went with the kind of service we were peddling. Give it out, but don’t accept it, or heaven forbid ask for it in return. Maintain face at all cost.
If there were old people to visit, my mum and dad went to see them on a Monday night. If the French Canadian family who didn’t speak English needed a place to have Christmas dinner, they were at our dining room table. Us awkwardly trying to say turkey in french.
“Veuillez uh um passer la din-uh dindry no not dindry, dinde et la sauce”.
When flyers needed delivering to every household in the city about some church fundraising drive, we were the kids standing at your door, and if something needed baking, cleaning or organizing, we were doing it.
At the time (and sometimes still) I thought it was overkill. Why did WE always have to do it? What made us the servants to the entire universe?
But as children we did learn a quality that many people have to learn later on in life, and what I know now is that service isn’t something you do because you are expected to, or supposed to. Service shouldn’t be forced, but it should be taught. It isn’t something that is beneath some people and meant for others.
Service is a privilege, and it is one of those gifts that pays back a dividend far greater than the initial investment.
Service is rarely recognized, and it doesn’t require grand gestures. It is just being kind really. It is seeing a need and doing what you can, willingly and with an open heart, to fill that need. It is about looking after your community. A life of service is not just for the clergy or the military, it is for us all.
That’s what I think.
Love,
Mum xo
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Thank you, Sharon and Jessica
