The Value of Work

When I am in my garden, it is prime time to think.  While we are taking a watering turn, a thing I really love to do, there is plenty of time to ponder on what is important, what touches me, what I want most from life. 

I took a turn on Friday with Ken.  When our hour and forty five minutes was complete, my toes were frozen, my wrists and shoulders hurt and I had a backache (should get in shape) but my mind was running.  My mind was in a way, getting in shape.  I thought about many things but most of all I thought about the value of work.  We spent 10 hours working in the garden on Friday.  I was exhausted but it was happy exhaustion.

I get some kind of endorphin high and that's for sure.  I love the sweating and the dirt.  I love "playing" in the water.  I get to play and accomplish something good as well.   I love to see how things look after I have pulled enough weeds.  I love to plant something and see what happens in the next few weeks.  Even the dead plants become a measure for me.  Well, I guess that plant doesn't work there.  I better try something else.  Better yet!  Wow!  That is doing really well and looks great.  Maybe I should plant more of those.

As we were sitting on the patio, having a drink and looking at our yard that is being slowly brought into shape again, I said to Ken, "You know, I really love to work!"  It was kind of a personal revelation moment.  I had never really thought about loving to work but I do.  It is not just the physical work.  It is the sense of being a part of the whole that comes from work in creating the whole.  It is the sense of satisfaction that, after the work, shows up in the beauty.  It is the sense of worth created in me because I was part of this creation.  It is in the joy that I get when I look on grandpa's and grandma's personal park, created by us for our wonderful family.

Many, many years ago, I became concerned because I felt I was spending too much time and money on our garden.  I expressed this concern to Ken.  He kind of chuckled and then said something I have never forgotten.  He said, "You are learning to create a world!"  I had never thought about gardening in this way but it made a lot of difference to me to know that he thought of it as something productive to be doing with my time and cash.

Isn't that what we are trying to achieve in many of our endeavors?  Aren't we trying to make sense of why we do things?  Don't we want it to be about more than just bringing home a paycheck?  Don't we want to know that we are important to the whole?  That is what work brings me.  Answers!  I get them working in my garden.