You need not see what someone is doing
to know if it is his vocation,
you only have to watch his eyes:
a cook mixing a sauce, a surgeon
making a primary incision,
a clerk completing a bill of lading,
wear the same rapt expression,
forgetting themselves in the function.
How beautiful it is,
that eye-on-the-object look.
W.H. Auden
from his poem “Sext”
This poem was featured on the back cover of a yearly publication from Cardus titled “Making the Most of College”. It proves to be one of my favorite “magazines”, if you can call something with such thought, vision and meaning in the same catagory as other magazines like Cosmopolitan.
What strikes me about this poem is the personal connection into my own vocation. Serving as a campus minister with the CCO and partnering with Standing Stone Coffee Company has given me two places to experience this type of vocation connection. Whether it’s a thrilling conversation about faith, life and learning with a college student or the intricate, artful and scientific preparation of a well-crafted latte, I see a place where I sense the rapt expression in my eyes, a focus on the task at hand, an “eye-on-the-object” look.
For such expression I am grateful but also compelled to serve thoughtfully in these moments rather than being lost in the hustle of life, resulting in disconnect. To be present can often be a sacrifice of one’s self for the sake of another. To give.
