I recently went on a job interview that was conducted with a considerable degree of gravitas. It was an affair that required metered parking, a conference room, and an entire assembled committee present to ask questions. This is exactly the sort of thing I have been doing my best to avoid for the last decade of my work life. Yet, there we all were sitting at the table with all the questions. One of the questions posed in the interview was an unexpected delight:
How do you do the work?
That’s it.
That’s the whole vague and fantastic question.
At the time it was posed, I was confounded. I had never given voice to my process. How I do the work has been a very long and winding road across time and country, over the river, and through the woods. While the answer I gave summarized that journey, there is something about that question that has been revving and honking (with a Klaxon-like “AHOOGA!” sound) at me ever since it was posed. That question feels like a tiny clown car that I could get inside with twenty friends, and we could go anywhere in it.
So today I am here still mulling over that question with the intent to share some thoughts and scenes from my everyday work life that may help shed additional light on the answer as it continues to unfold. As Rainer Maria Rilke has written,
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
How do I do the work?
First off, there is a generous supply of silliness in my work, and that is by design. I have to do quite a bit of work on myself on a regular basis to get my mind-set right. That work begins with Shakti-building exercises and intentional goal-setting to keep me a happy, healthy human. I guess other people would probably call this “planning” or maybe “self-care.” Anyway, the way I do it looks like this:
Having the right mind-set prepares me to deal constructively with the obstacles and menacing hindrances that inevitably present themselves as I’m going about the work, whatever that work may be…
When working through problems and I get stuck, allowing time for conscious play, or blending the lines between work and play does wonders for unsticking the stuck.
A lot of the work I do is setting the stage with the right props and providing the space, time, and encouragement necessary for other people to play and learn and express whatever it is they want to say. Serving as a witness for this self-discovery is one of my favorite things about my work.
It isn’t all fun and games. Yesterday morning’s work was a frenzied internal battle to get idea from brain to paper. When the dust settled this was the scene that remained:
There have been times I have been crushed by the work and fellow passengers pulled me from the wreckage. Other times, Good Samaritans have come along to fluff me back up when I’ve gotten deflated. Never underestimate those singing spirits of the world who hide right out in the open.

~*~
How do YOU do the work?
What questions are you loving and living?
9 comments
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February 20, 2022 at 2:22 pm
The Goddess Attainable
I’m interested to know what work you do exactly. Sounds like a creative process of some sort. When it comes to creativity, I tend to just live my life and keep checking in with myself throughout the day. And then inevitably, I have things to say or be expressed. And when I don’t, I can’t seem to force it, so instead just keep living life until some channel opens again.
February 23, 2022 at 9:48 pm
Lunar Euphoria
Your process sounds so Zen and effortless! Mine sounds like a hyperactive 6-year-old strung out on Skittles and Starbursts.
I work with clients, students, and institutions where the lines of communication science, applied linguistics, education, and the healing arts intersect.
February 23, 2022 at 10:11 pm
The Goddess Attainable
That sounds amazing wow! Ha your process sounds adorable! Either way, I think it’s working for you!! ⭐️🤩
February 21, 2022 at 12:51 pm
Kathy
That Benediction song is beautiful, and I enjoyed reading your process.
February 23, 2022 at 9:51 pm
Lunar Euphoria
Thank you for reading! And yes, she sang that blessing like a high priestess. The written transcript doesn’t do it justice.
February 24, 2022 at 2:24 am
stitchedinstone
whatever job you do and whomever you work with is VERY lucky to have your radiant spirit helping the process and creativity and healing!
April 16, 2022 at 9:06 am
Lunar Euphoria
Thank you for the light of your attention here and for your incredibly kind words.
April 20, 2022 at 4:26 am
Mr. Z
I admit I think ‘unicorn girls’ are the best. What are you working on now? Where are you woman?
April 20, 2022 at 2:49 pm
Lunar Euphoria
Oh! How funny you should ask — I just posted on that topic this morning. (Somehow, I missed seeing that you’d posed these questions beforehand; none of my electronical gizmos ever act right.)