Why I Am

At Your Service

If you have ever read a blog or seen a video of mine telling a story or explaining something, I always end with "I am at your service" and it's all because of a dream I once had.  This dream altered the way I look at life.  We all come upon these forks in the road on our path in life, sometimes its the road less taken, maybe it's something all together different.

I was in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland with my two boys who were probably 3 and 5 years old. We had fallen asleep by the fire after a great day of rambling around the woods.  Our dog Winnie was at our feet.  I had a boy under each arm and the wind was rustling the last of the leaves off the trees.  My world was safe.  I had my boys sleeping like boys do and nothing could take that dog by surprise. I conked out and then came the dream.

It was unlike any dream I've had before or since.  A large assembly of sober minded men gathered around me.  So many of them looked like Amish or Mennonite, with dark clothes, beards and hats. I can't say that I specifically recognized anyone but I felt certain I knew them all, which is an odd thing but nothing about it felt odd.  They surrounded me, quietly waiting for me to make up my mind, about what, I had no idea.

I was about 38 years old at the time.  I had been a carpenter for 15 years and spent my days with wood and there is a lot to be said about spending your days with wood. When I began carpentry I would often spend the entire day in a type of trance.  I would see the space I needed to fix or replace or build from scratch and my mind would slip into a kind of trance, a world of dimensions, tools, wood, hammers and hands doing their thing.  A dialogue between wood and me would begin that lasted all day and at the end of the day, I would surface from that long dance with wood, shake my head wondering where the day had gone, pack up my tools and go home.

But since the arrival of my sons, the mercenary component of working with wood had by necessity increased.  I needed to make real money.  The trances became less frequent.  Jobs got faster, more sub contractors came into the picture, things just got more complicated.  And now this dream.  A spokesperson from the gathered group stepped forward, a senior member, an elder, he had a lot of gravity about him.  He asked me if I had come to a decision.  Now, up to that point I had no idea what was going on but the moment he phrased the question, I knew the answer. He wanted to know if I was ready to become a "man of service" or not.  Was I going to continue down the mercenary road toward money or was I going to devote my life to the service of others?

It wasn't long after that I began teaching and taught for almost 15 years, until my patience ran out. But my sense of service never left me and that is why I end everything by saying:  "I am Wes Parker and I am at your service.".