Serving, Fixing, and Helping

Recently I (virtually) met Cory who heads up the Action Hero Network. He sent this out to us from the facebook group.

In the Service of Life

Serving is different from helping.
Helping incurs debt. But serving, like healing, is mutual.
Serving is also different from fixing. There is distance
between ourselves and whatever or whomever we are fixing.
Fixing is a form of judgement. All judgement creates
distance, a disconnection, an experience of difference.
If helping is an experience of strength, fixing is an
experience of mastery and expertise.
Service on the other hand, is an experience of mastery,
surrender, and awe. We cannot serve at a distance.
We can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected,
that which we are willing to touch.
We serve life not because it is broken, but because it is holy.

Adapted from Rachel Naomi Remen

(found on Argon’s page: http://people.tribe.net/argonvancouver )

Indeed. I like this description very much. It resonates deeply with the way I was trained to think with coaching and trained to see philanthropy. (Yes, I know that is not at all what most people would assume philanthropy is–but let us hope for a transformation in this direction where serving is the form of contribution.)