Are You Laying Bricks Or Building A Cathedral?

[FM123]

Seeing Notre Dame burn like that saddened me beyond belief - as I was searching for something uplifting, I came across this old article from HuffPost.


I have been inspired by many of John F. Kennedy’s stories and speeches so I was surprised I hadn’t heard a certain story involving him before. It was the story about when he visited NASA and saw a janitor mopping up the floor. JFK asked him what his job was at NASA and the gentleman said, “I’m helping send a man to the moon.”

Talk about understanding the big picture. The idea of teamwork. How each small act adds up to something extraordinary.

We can all use that message in our lives every day. Are we always focused on the destination or do we enjoy the journey? Do we crumble when things don’t go our way, or do we think about what we can learn from a setback? How it will allow us to grow?

Another parable I heard on this topic was the one about the three bricklayers. A traveler came upon three men working. He asked the first man what he was doing and the man said he was laying bricks. He asked the second man the same question and he said he was putting up a wall. When he got to the third man and asked him what he was doing he said he was building a cathedral.

They were all doing the same thing. The first man had a job. The second man had a career. The third man had a calling.

Do you look at what you do every day as a calling? It doesn’t necessarily have to be the job of your dreams, but can you see the big picture in your daily actions? Do you realize what a difference you are making?

We may be laying bricks every day, but if we can envision the cathedral and move through our days with intention and passion, we are living our best life.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/are-you-laying-bricks-or_b_12387634

[mcar]

1. That is beautiful

SO is a public HS teacher. He works long hours and frequently talks to school custodians as they clean the school. Most of them are interesting men and women.

They are such an important part of the education of our kids.

[3catwoman3]

2. When I was stationed at Yokota Air Base...

...during my second tour of duty with the Air Force nurse corps, there were many on-base jobs done by local Japanese citizens. There were 2 elderly gentlemen whose job it was to clean the part of the hospital where the pediatric clinic was. They would scrape gum of the floor with the same care and devotion one would expect to see from someone cleaning the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

It was humbling.

[smirkymonkey]

4. +1000

Thank you for telling us that. It was nice to hear.

[3catwoman3]

5. My now-husband was stationed there as well.

We lived in the same BOQ building. One day, a new white stripe was needed on the street in front of the building. It took several workers most of the day to tape out and hand paint the white line with standard size paint brushes. After they removed the tape, they went back and filled in the uneven edges of the stripe with little tiny paint brushes.

[Raine]

3. THANKS, very inspirational!