"In Service" to the Universe

"You're going to have to serve somebody. May be the devil, may be the lord, but you're going to have to serve somebody." --Bob Dylan "Gotta Serve Somebody"

To be used and to be useful is a wonderful thing. Oftentimes in the lifestyle we apply the concept of the joy of service to slaves/submissives, but Dominants/Masters may also be “in service.” All of us may be in service to another person or persons (regardless of one’s position in the power exchange), our family/house (vanilla and kinky), our community, and our country/world. We may also be in service to a higher power, a concept or ideal, or an organization which furthers one of these notions.

When I think of the universe, I think of the creative energy which flows through all things. I perceive ebbs and flows of that energy, and I perceive what I might go so far as to call a “desire” to change, grow, and create. In relation to this, things which are created shift and change form (through the concept we call death) and decomposition. But what the Law of Conservation tells us is that energy is never lost, but only shifted. So from the moment energy comes into being, it is in a constant state of creating, breaking down, and re-creating.

Now theologians and philosophers have argued for centuries about how all of this has come to be, how we understand it, and what it means in relation to our actions on the planet. I am not here to argue any of the concepts which have come before. My job is not to convince you what I am saying is “right.” You are the only one who gets to decide what you believe. I am only here to express my own thoughts on this and how it relates to what I see as my service.

For many of us, we function as healers for our fellow man. This can take many forms, from working in one of the healing arts (body, mind, spirit) to working in a job that makes people feel wonderful or happy. There is an energy that radiates out from us that can be felt by those in need. If someone is in need of a spiritual tuneup, they will energetically be attracted to someone who has that skill, just as molecules of hydrogen and oxygen become attracted to one another. If someone needs bodywork, they are energetically attracted to someone who can do that for them, or are sent down a path of attraction by which you meet someone who knows exactly who you need to see/speak to. The same rules of attraction apply, it just takes the energy a little longer to get us where we need to be.

I often describe this process of having a lighted red-cross above our heads that no one can see except those who need us (and even then, it’s not visible to the eye). All I have to do is be willing (open for business) when those who come looking find me. I have been an energetic healer, a psychological sounding board, a confessor, and a myriad of other things.

Part of being in service to the universe is working to see clearly which needs in the world are ours to assist with/solve and which are not. We must be humble and not feel as though we know the absolute right answer, as what is best in every situation is unique. What is right in this moment may not be right in the next.

We must also be living authentically ourselves, achieving our highest good, in order to have our best life and to be able to give as much as we can in our service. Many of us who are “called” to service forget to have healthy boundaries. We are not required to solve all problems, work on behalf of every cause, or exhaust ourselves to our own detriment. Having a “healer down” is not any help to the universe, and if we have nothing left for ourselves, we have nothing we can give anyway.

Many people have a very skewed notion of what service needs to look like. We have been told that if we are not a Mother Teresa, then we are not selfless enough. We have been told that our own happiness is selfish. We have been told that if we can’t give our gifts in a socially or religiously prescribed way, then our gifts are paltry or useless.

But this is the farthest from the truth as can be. If a person serves soup in a kitchen for the homeless, but he is unhappy or pities/loathes the people whom he serves, then he is poisoning the soup just as if he had been administering slow doses of rat poison into the pot. The cashier at the market who is angry gives you pieces of that anger when she hands you change. The doctor who is depressed and treats your sickness casts a shadow on your health and healing, depressing your body’s own tendency to heal itself.

This is one of the many reasons that I tell submissives that you really DO need to serve with love as much as possible. A Dominant can command your action, not your heart, it’s true. But any service you give with love has a greater energy to it to make all who are surrounded by it better. This is why if someone is cooking for you, they should love you or they should love the food/act of cooking or it changes the energetic field around the very food which is supposed to nourish us.

Some of you may be scoffing at this, but I would urge you to pay attention to all of the times in your life when you experienced “unlove” and you knew it, even if it had never been stated.

Your gifts should bring you joy when you engage in them. They allow you to expand in your skill, knowledge, and blissful abandon in their execution. When you share these gifts, others feel all of this joy and are blessed by it. There are as many types of gifts as there are flowers. Some people make great art, some teach, some dance, and some just have smiles which heal others when they see it. All good things increase the overall good of the world.

Because there are so many people and so many gifts, why would you need to be miserable to serve in some capacity which someone else would find joy in the doing? Your joy is part of your service, energetically speaking. This is not to say that you will never see a need which must be answered that will challenge you. But there will be a deep knowing that this is what you are “specifically” being called to do. You can decline, but there is a knowing that this was your burden to take up. And even if there is pain involved, there will be equal measures of joy, and a sense of fulfillment when you have answered that call.

While I am not always good at keeping boundaries where I make sure I am being healthy and meeting my own needs as well, I am still committed to being of service when I am met with situations or people that have the need for my specific skills or energy. Some needs are small, some are on a grander scale, but all are ones which are part of keeping the universal flow of energy going in healthy streams. It is a kind of co-creating with the universe where we chose to do things which promote health of our energetic rivers and oceans as opposed to stagnation and blockage.

If you want to stay away from any sense of mysticism, you can look at all sorts of social contract theories, laws of group dynamics, the function of government/religion on societal control/health, or even Kant’s Categorical Imperative. But I interact with my world in an energetic sense; it is the language I speak, the senses through which I gain information, the space in which I flow.

All of this is to say that no matter what relationships I form on the planet, I will still serve the needs of the universe and answer its call when I am able.