Thoughts for a rainy Tuesday.

Work Day Blessings

“The days you work are the best days.” Georgia O'Keeffe

It's Tuesday morning; a cold rain is falling, and has been falling steadily all night. I'm sure there are flooded roadways everywhere in this city and yet, people will get themselves up and dressed and head off to work. It will be slow-going; traffic grinding to a halt to avoid pools under overpasses and water running across roads. We will sip our coffee from paper cups and lament the misery of this unnatural weather we've endured for the past few years—drought to flood, freezing cold to heat that literally melts the asphalt beneath us. We know we'll be late to work, and so will everyone else, which means we'll be behind the eight ball all day long. And, we're already dreading the commute home.

Man! We need a lift here somewhere! Let's consider work and its role in our lives. First of all, we human beings are like ants. We don't know what to do with ourselves if we don't have work to do. We need that structure to our days to keep us happy. Work, even work that cannot be called, “meaningful” is crucial to our well-being. It feeds us and our families, it clothes us and it shelters us. We draw our feelings of self worth from getting up and going to work. According to Georgia O'Keeffe, “You get whatever accomplishment you are willing to declare.” In other words, we are the ones who define the worth of our work. It is our attitude toward our work that makes it good or bad.

Right now, I am looking at twenty things to ship today from our eBay store. Shipping is not sexy work. It isn't meaningful. I've had to create goals for myself to keep it interesting—so many listings in a week, and shipping within one day of receiving the order, stellar packing. I've come up with ways to make it rewarding. We must take ourselves in hand and realize the rewards of work are worth the boredom and the long, wet or hot commutes. Work is a blessing and not a hardship. The quality of our work, regardless of what kind of work we do, determines how we feel about ourselves. When we work as though the world depends on us, we imbue that work with heart and soul. One day we will look back and realize that these work days are the very best days of our lives.

                                                      In the Spirit,

                                                            Jane