“All work is empty except when there is love,
And when you work with love you tie yourself to yourself, and to others, and to God.
And what does it mean to work with love?
It means weaving the cloth with threads drawn from your heart as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It means building a house with affection as if your loved one were going to live in that house.
It means sowing the seeds with love and reaping them with joy as if your loved one were going to eat the fruits.
It means charging all the things you create with a breath of your own spirit.”

It is impossible not to resonate at the same frequency when reading these verses by Kahlil Gibran in his work “The Prophet” because we are all made to live in love. It would be going against our nature if we lived and worked meaninglessly, on the edge of the deep void of nothingness or, worse still, in condemnation, rejecting beauty and light. For this reason, we have to make all possible efforts so that there is no unemployment or forms of slavery because they are criminal acts against human beings. 

The value that work has for the person also applies to the one that is not reimbursed. Regarding this aspect, several of the women we train in the area of gastronomic entrepreneurship in our association have given me a new lesson to treasure in my heart. Typically, we invite them to collaborate and cook in the soup kitchen for children in their community as a requirement, and under a logic of consideration and to thank them for what we have given them in training. However, the experience exceeded expectations, because they were the ones who were most grateful to share their knowledge, time, and effort. This has made it possible to see solidarity work as an opportunity for fellowship, personal growth, and sharing life with each other, thus generating a community of collaborative and supportive entrepreneurship.
 
Pope Francis’s exhortation in Evangelii Gaudium is so true when he affirms that: “in free, creative, participatory and supportive work, the human being expresses and increases the dignity of his life”.

At the beginning of a new year, faced with the needs that we encounter every day, how many times do we ask ourselves: how can our work be more collaborative and supportive of others? Do we dedicate time to see what experience we have at work? Does our awareness of all the gifts we have received grow? To summarize, what is the meaning of the work that we do?