Of brooms and spiritual disciplines

Here are the tools of the trade for some of the men who are groundskeepers/gardeners. The brooms are charming -- made from dried grasses. Most come without the handles and then the worker just stoops over to sweep.

Here's Robert -- one of my favorite workers. He's very soft-spoken and shy. But when I address him each morning, he breaks into his charming grin!












These guys are amazing! They diligently do the same thing every day. The leaves fall from trees year-round so that means that every day they sweep the driveways -- same trees, just different leaves. The first time I expressed my dismay that they have to do the same thing over and over the response was, "But Madame, we know work is always here for us!" If they slack on their work even one day -- "big wahala!" (big problem!) How many years has Robert been sweeping the same roads, I wonder ...?

There's a spiritual lesson here, don't you think? While we're here on earth, we've got to apply the same diligence to our spiritual housecleaning! Same trees, different leaves!