This has been a consistently popular piece since I first wrote it, over 10 years ago. Unbelievably, I hadn’t posted it on this site before! 

One of the greatest sayings I ever encountered and which changed my life the most at the time was that ‘True freedom is liking what you do, not doing what you like’. As a number one unruly individual who hated authority and conformity, it was a completely new way of looking at the balance between independence and involvement in life.

Peter Caddy, one of the founders of the Findhorn community in northern Scotland, was fond of quoting his Rosicrucian teacher Dr. Sullivan: ‘Learn to love the place you are in, the people you are with and the work you have to do.’ The point is of course to find something you can love about the place you are in, the people you are with and the work you are doing. Just forget the negatives and smile. This seems to me to encompass much the same philosophy.

But we can go further than that and say that everything in life becomes wonderful, worthwhile, pleasurable and meaningful if we put love into it. If you find that you cannot flow love into what you are doing, then it isn’t worth being involved with. If your task isn’t something you love doing, then it isn’t spiritually valuable to you. Continue reading →