The Path of Supportive Service
We help others by simply walking beside them in supportive service.
We don’t push. We don’t pull. We don’t tell them what to do. We simply walk beside them in service. Supportive service. Loving service. Loyal service.
We do it for others. Others do it for us.
We move gently into their life and match their steps.
We may shine a light here and there to highlight possibilities, but mostly we walk in loving support beside them as they move through their own journey.
It’s an interesting feeling for me to know that I don’t walk beside you as a teacher or a leader. I’m simply here to support. And shine a little light along our shared pathway.
I see myself on a path. It’s not a particularly steep path, but it’s heading steadily upward.
At this point in human time, I have two people with whom I’m actively interacting as we walk along together. We’re going in the same direction, but we are taking separate journeys.
That’s as it should be.
I’m also walking beside others through my writing, even if I’m not always in direct interaction with them.
I know that just as I find support and inspiration and motivation from other people whose work I read, we never know how the waves we send out impact others.
Support by listening
For me, the greater service my two walking-beside-me-in-service partners give is to provide a space for me to share my excitement over what I discover and what I learn. They’re strong sounding boards and reflective mirrors. In that sense, we teach each other because we’re going more or less in the same direction, but we each have chosen a distinctive pathway.
We listen well. We exchange ideas with enthusiasm. We give informed feedback and encouragement. Sometimes the gift is an idea we pick up from the other person that they’ve chosen to put in place themselves. Listening is learning. As we share our experiences and our response and interpretation of our own journey, we each expand our awareness – of self and of possibilities.
Because my path is so focused on deepening my own spiritual understanding, for me the most important aspect of walking beside someone in service is that we’re at similar levels of interest and accomplishment along our path. We can understand each other at the deepest levels of our journeys.
It has occurred to me, in writing this, that you are the third person I’m walking beside in service. You, who read what I write and sometimes offer comments. Thank you for your thoughtful steps beside me. Thank you for sharing in my journey.
We follow our heart when we select who to walk beside in service. It’s always an exchange. We both give and receive as we move along our journey.
Support by mirroring
One of my walk-beside partners is very detailed. I’m at the other end of the spectrum. I grab an idea and run with it. She holds it and studies and absorbs it. Both are perfectly appropriate ways of learning but it was important for both of us to see and honor each other’s learning styles. She helps me be willing to be a little more detailed – I help her be a little more experimental.
Support by reflecting
One of my partners is a fellow shamanic practitioner. We’re both exploring how we want to fit that incredible work into our lives, for ourselves and for assisting others. She wants an active in-person shamanic practice. I want to primarily use the journey work to explore and write about what I discover and show others how to apply journeying for their own self-awareness. Two different objectives. One shared path.
We practice on each other. We reflect back to each other. We learn from each other. We talk on Skype every week.
Learn from their path
The other major person I’m walking beside in service is also a healer, but her path is different from mine. She’s exploring things I never even thought about and some of my experiences in my shamanic explorations expand her knowledge. We have broad-ranging conversations as we walk alongside each other.
As you walk beside someone in illumined service, there’s an exchange. You learn from each other as you also support each other’s journey.
Learn from helping
I’ve just begun to walk beside someone else in service. She wants to learn shamanism. As I prepare an outline for the guidance I want to offer, my own knowledge deepens and expands. Her questions and needs and interests will guide our journey together.
Helping her helps me clarify how I want to be in service on a broader scale. The words I want to write. The insights I want to offer. You learn from the person you’re walking beside even as you’re the one doing the supportive walking.
There are people you serve you don’t know
Here’s the unmeasurable one. Our presence has a ripple effect. Our work has a ripple effect. My work with the people I’m actively walking beside supports them and helps them expand their reach. I can see the movement that comes from our exchanges. But through these people, I’m also in service to others I do not know in places I cannot see, as they expand their own reach into their world.
I also am aware that I’m walking on a planetary-wide path with people I do not know. But I know our purpose. I know our direction. We are Illumined Explorers expressing our spirit-directed living and we are moving through the world to tap on the shoulders of receptive people. As we shine our light, others see it and recognize the light in themselves, and they join in to help raise the collective consciousness. It’s very inclusive, impactful work for the wellbeing of our planet.
It’s trickier for me to gauge the impact of my own written offerings. I occasionally get emails that indicate that a particular post has touched a life. And I know there’s a consistent number of “opens” on my weekly posts. But I have no idea what my work prompts each reader to turn around and give their world. And I never will. I have to trust and keep shining my light their way. So that’s what I keep doing.
You walk beside someone in service with every exchange
I live in a senior community in the conservative Mid-West and with my metaphysical interests, there’s no one here I can talk to about them. But my mere presence is part of my service. My persona, my participation, my appreciation for the opportunity to interact, those are all ways I walk beside them in service. Your mere presence is a light that shines upon the path. We must be conscious of everything we offer the world, even by simply being present.
Point out the possibilities
If you picture yourself walking along a path beside someone, you may periodically shine your light on other possible paths to explore. They may take one detour. You may explore another. When you continue on the main path together, you each have new insights to share from your separate side journeys.
Help them over the high places
When we walk beside someone in service we help each other over the high places – and the low places. That’s simply the nature of walking along the same path. We’re supportive of our respective journeys.
Appreciate their light upon your path
Not everyone is going to think of their personal journey as shining their light upon the path of another. Perhaps as you walk beside someone, you tell them how much their light means to you. Perhaps you even find ways you both might shine your lights in other directions. Stay aware. Keep on the lookout and respond to the opportunities that appear.
What does it feel like to walk beside someone in service?
Look at your life. Who are you walking beside? Who is walking beside you? Some may be walking more closely to you, some may be nearby but at different points on the journey. Some may be willing to take that interesting detour with you. Others may not.
Simply shine your light brighter. Expand your beam. Draw in more people. And keep walking.
FOR DEEPER EXPLORATION:
Live in the Center of your being
What Is The Foundation Upon Which You Build Your Life?
How Effective Is Your Spiritual Practice?
One Powerful Way to Change Our Future
If You Are A Rock – Who Supports You?
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