Six Keys to Effective Service.

2013 vibrates with the energy of the Six, and Six calls us to Service.

     We all underwent changes and growth during the Five vibration of 2012, and now is a good time for a little introspection and self-examination to ensure that what we are offering in Service is the most effective use of our talent and time..

     Key Number One is to know what you can offer. If you can’t cook, don’t offer to make dinner for anyone. Avoid becoming a budget manager for a non-profit unless you have the skills to be successful – and be a benefit to the group. If you have always chosen to lend your time to visiting homebound community members, and 2012 was your year for learning new card games or ways to master dominoes, this might be the time to offer those pastimes in the homes you serve. While familiarity is a comfort to both the visitor and the visited, adjustments that add a little stimulation and challenge can benefit both. Leaving your new abilities out of use and out of service is no advantage to anyone.   

     Key Number Two asks you to create meaningful and respectful relationships with the people you serve. There is no Soul Growth to be found by The Great Benefactor who expresses service only through goods and products. Donating books to a children’s program is fine and progressive thing to do. If, however, the donor gets involved, reads aloud, and sees the faces of the listeners, then an entirely new dimension is added to the transaction.

     Key Number Three to offering effective service is to create an original solution to the situation you are addressing. This combines keys One and Two and adds the reminder that You, Your Soul here in the earthly plane, is unique and particular. You can offer ideas and thoughts and concepts which belong to no one else in the universe.  When you step into the service of the Six year, you have the opportunity to do and be and offer something that is entirely your own, and is therefore valuable beyond measure.  Do not minimize the importance of what you have learnt in life. Be willing to share your wisdom. It is in the sharing that your experience locates its purpose.

     Key Four calls for practicality. Sometimes we feel called to service that is more grand than can be accomplished in the moment. While you may indeed be inspired to help in the rebuilding of hurricane damaged villages in Haiti, the time spent in saving and preparation for that noble trip can be put to valuable use in your home community. This may be a time when you are fund-raising for your Haitian village, or educating your hometown about the needs of the Haitian people. Then again, if you have a couple of hours a week when you can groom horses, why not do so in support of a riding school that offers programming for special-needs children. Physical practical work like floor-mopping or clothes-ironing can be meditative and restful even while serving an important need for someone or some project.

     Key Five asks you to be adaptable to the varying needs of the people you are present to serve. Just as you will adjust your focus in infant care when a child needs to eat instead of play, or to have a diaper-change instead of playing patty-cake, so every place of service asks that you be willing to turn your hand to the needs of the moment. There is no net gain to volunteering as pianist in a dance class if you continue to play tunes while a dancer struggles with a fall and possible injury. Being of service means suspending your personal agenda in order to Serve.

     Key Six: Just Serve; or as the slogan says Just Do It.  Examining your skills and willingnesses, making time in your schedule, planning to offer your talents to programs you support, these are steps along the way. They are not enough. You have to make the effort. Make the phone call. Send the email. Knock on the door. Remember that your unique skills exist to make a difference in the world. This Six year is your opportunity to lift the bushel basket away from the shining light that is you. This is not about that forbidden “putting yourself forward” for which so many of us were punished. This is about expressing Divine Purpose.

     When you express something positive from your being, the world changes. When your individual abilities are set loose in the universe, the universe is improved. Your kindness, your caring and your effort combine to invite miracles to show up. And show up they will, not only for you, but also in the lives of the people you serve, and in the whole world beyond.

Service is a Dance with your Divine Destiny. Go. Now.