Work is sacred. My family history is steeped in a quiet but fierce sense of purpose. I am a descendant of Mormon pioneers who crossed a continent to “make the desert bloom.” Before them, our ancestors came to the New World as Pilgrims and Puritans, with a vision to “build a city on a hill.” These weren’t metaphors to them. These were callings. They believed the work of their hands, planting fields, building homes, founding schools - was not separate from their faith, but a living reflection of it. They carried a belief found across many religious traditions, that work is sacred. That how we labor is a reflection of our hearts, what we love, what we hope for, and who we ultimately serve. That inheritance shapes how I see the world. I often think about the generations who came before me and what they endured to pursue something better. They didn’t always get it right. But they believed deeply that we are each stewards of something larger than ourselves, and that our actions should reflect that truth. In healthcare, we are privileged to be reminded of this daily. We are surrounded by the stark reality of illness and recovery, by people at their most vulnerable, by the chance to help. The purpose of our work is clear: to heal the sick. What I’ve come to believe, what I try to carry forward, is that our work isn’t just a means to an end. It is an expression of who we are and what we believe. The legacy I’ve inherited teaches me that good work, done with strong ethic, intention, and love, can build cities, make deserts bloom, and heal broken things.
Beautiful post, Austin. I'll always cherish the long summer days we spent doing concrete work in Wyoming--one of many ways you've helped the desert bloom!
Austin - this really spoke to me and was something I needed to read today. Thank you for sharing.
i believe this so much. 🙏
Well said, Austin. We stand on the shoulders of giants, and now the weight of legacy rests with us. It’s our duty to build a future worthy of our children and grandchildren.
I often find myself being reminded of this and it brings so much purpose and drive to what I'm doing. Independent of religious beliefs, the rough proof goes something like: what am I trying to do = make the world a better place = more people who have better and more fulfilled lives = what God wants for the each person and for the world
What a great post. To know your heritage-- what's wired into the core of your being-- is something most don't pay attention to. Good to have people like you in healthcare, Austin. 👊
Great stuff, Austin Walters! Super impressive to see the positive impact you're all having at Springtide.
Austin Walters, the pioneer comparison is apt. It is grounding to view work through the lens of inheritance and stewardship. The pioneers didn't overthink it - they saw what needed doing and did it. Maybe that's what I appreciate most about healthcare - the clarity is built in. People need healing, so heal them. The work speaks for itself, requiring no additional justification. Thanks for sharing this perspective
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Attorney-Entrepreneur
2moLove this. Reminds me of the following quote from Dorothy Sayers: “…The church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables. Church by all means, and decent forms of amusement, certainly—but what use is all that if in the very center of his life and occupation he is insulting God with bad carpentry? No crooked table legs or ill-fitting drawers ever, I dare swear, came out of the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. Nor, if they did, could anyone believe that they were made by the same hand that made Heaven and earth. No piety in the worker will compensate for work that is not true to itself; for any work that is untrue to its own technique is a living lie.” Dorothy L. Sayers, Creed or Chaos?, (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949), 56–57. Quoted by Thomas B. Griffith in “How Do We Practice Our Religion While We Practice?”, Clark Memorandum, Fall, 2004, p. 15.