Then a ploughman said, Speak to us of Work.
And he answered, saying:
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons,
and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and
proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours
turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told that work is a curse and labor a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream,
assigned to you when that dream was born.
And in keeping yourself with labor you are in truth loving life.
And to love life through labor is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.
But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse
written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away
that which is written.
You have been told that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.
And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is knowledge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is love;
And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself,
and to the other, and to God.
And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in the house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved
were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things, you fashion with a breath of your own spirit.
And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.
Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, “He who works in marble, and finds
the shape of his own soul in stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.
And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth is the likeness of man, is more than
he who makes the sandals for our feet.”
But I say, not in sleep but in the over wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not
more sweetly to the giant oaks that to the least of all the blades of grass;
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.
Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work
and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the
voices of the day and the voices of the night.
-by Kahlil Gibran
