The Things Which Go Unnoticed
(Originally posted on 11/01/2025)
As I sat this morning on the porch of my parents’ home in Saint Louis, Missouri, I looked out across the school yard of my childhood. Briefly chanting RamNam, my attention is lifted to the large, deciduous tree tops across the way, dancing in the morning light of the end-of-October sunshine. Such beautiful, sparkling light, after two initial days of PNW clouds, winds, and rain here in the Show-Me-State.
Soon, my eye catches the movement of a person walking with purpose through the playground area. I gradually see that she is carrying a bag, and picking up trash, hither and yon as she goes. I can imagine the big winds overnight have had a special propensity for distributing humanity about.
From there, I next observe her moving through one of the vast black-top areas where the children play kickball and other games (this one, where I spent countless hours with my neighborhood peers playing roller hockey after school and on the weekends). Here, she carries a large push broom, or squeegee. With great forward-thrusts she flushes out the large puddles, well established from the rain, so that they may evaporate more quickly in the new day’s sun. After a few minutes in this area, and with fastidious tending to all the puddles, she moves to the next large blacktop area, home to the basketball hoops, where she initiates the puddle-pushing-process all over again.
In this front porch observation station, I look out calmly into this window of this world, and feel great gratitude for this unsung hero of the moment. Seemingly unaware that any other (like myself) may be watching, she travels the school yard with efficiency. Her activities, and only the ones I have observed in these few minutes, are no doubt contributing to a carefully stewarded, much improved environment for the children of this school and neighborhood.
Often I’ve reflected on a quote from Saint John of the Cross, in which he stated, “The best deed is the good deed done purely and with God alone.” In other words, there is righteousness in doing the simple things which go unnoticed by any eyes of the world. There is less space for the ego to take credit amidst the doing, and also less opportunity to become attached to the results.
And yet, in a deeper sense, nothing is ever truly unnoticed in the eyes of God. Even the number of hairs on our head are counted on this day.
This lady-steward of the school yard has found her purpose today, doing that which may well be hidden from the sight of others, and yet, which serves each and all who enter or pass by this outdoor arena.
And so too, do we embark, to do the simple and kind things in our own life each day, every moment, even (and perhaps, especially) as they are hidden from sight of another.
At the end of the movie A Hidden Life, a quote from George Elliot is shared,
“For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill for you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
Yogananda once defined our own Soul Freedom, as the ability to do that which is good and right, in all circumstances.
May we always aspire to live our lives with this kind of purity and simplicity, and let God sort out who notices what (and who doesn’t). For today, I am happy God chose me to notice this simple servant of Him. May she be blessed, as those children now frolicking about have been.
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