How not getting paid for doing
what you love can be a gift
Not everyone who asks you to do something for them for free is trying to
take something from you. Sometimes, they are giving you an incredible gift.
I remember years ago, I’d taken a job for $10 an hour in a dirty little fabric shop
after closing down my own beautiful homewares business. I thought I was
going crazy. So frightened was I the cancer would come back, I started
reversing my life into smaller, lesser and lower, to
match how I felt about my future. What’s the point?
I could die next year. I can’t have a career, a business.
So many people will be hurt if I have a big life and
get sick. I need to pull back, pull it down, close it up.
Years after I went into remission from cancer, I started
dying.
And then someone gave me a gift – they asked me to
do something for nothing.
I was asked by someone to give a little talk at a council
meeting about cancer services. Then I was asked to
have my picture taken for the paper for a cancer
fundraiser. Then they asked me to write a letter to
the paper. Then they asked me to lead a group. At the
time, I was being asked to do these things without pay.
It was a trick though. I did get something. I got to
do things I was really good at, and loved, and which
helped people, and I learned to detach my sense of
purpose from the necessity of making an income from
it. This was a bre