The Poet

Serve:  To be useful to; to meet the needs of.

I'd like to write some more stuff about being of service but I can't keep using the word "service."  Thus, "serve" makes an appearance.  A good word, too, fortunately.

I'm dialed into this idea of being of service.  Transforming myself so that I can be of "maximum" service.

Maximum:  The highest limit.  (Implied is that one cannot go higher.  This is it.  The pinnacle.  We're not shooting for a half-assed response here.)

Not to get too Bibley but there's a great story about Jeebus sitting down to a meal with his disciples after traveling through a dusty desert, hauling in a basin of water, and washing each of their feet before they ate (12 disciples = 24 feet).  An example of service delivered without the sermon or lecture.  People watch what we do a lot more closely than they listen to what we say.  Talk is cheap and frequently empty.

"We shouldn't be so concerned about what other people are thinking of us because they're doing it a lot less than we think."  Albert Einstein

I have a friend who is a poet.  No shit - a real, live poet who has published several volumes of poetry.  Last week he joined three other writers on a Zoom poetry reading with the idea, of course, of selling some books.  I'm a voracious reader but poetry?  Meh.  Not my favorite art form.  Still, this guy is a friend so I sat in on the reading.  I enjoyed it a great deal, of course, despite all of my preconceived notions.  The poet noted my presence for which he was grateful.  We chatted via email for a while afterwards and I shared a story about his brother who had committed suicide a few years back.   I knew his brother not at all but I shared a couple of memories with the poet that showed what a kind, gentle soul his brother was.  These were received with great gratitude.

So I ask each day that my higher power help me be of service to my fellows.  I never know what form this is going to take but the form invariably ends up being a lot less dramatic and a lot more satisfying than I would have imagined.