Putting More Life into Your Livelihood
My wife and I have a small patio garden with a pear tree, an herb table, and a wild rose. There’s a sock filled with nyjer seed for the goldfinches and a tube of millet for the house finches, juncos, towhees. Across the way is a large Brazilian pepper tree that sheds tiny leaves which pile up like brown snow drifts in our yard.
By nature I’m not a puttering-around-the-house kind of guy but working in our garden has a good feeling. There’s no need for a to-do list here. Instead it’s more like a conversation. Ah, the rose bush wants deadheading. The birds are letting me know the nyjer sock is close to empty. The basil looks great. It’s telling us that we need to make some pesto soon. I feel alive in the garden.
My Day Job is pretty much the opposite. From the moment I log into the VPN to the moment I log out I feel as if I’m strapped into the life-sucking Machine from Princess Bride. There are 87 new emails in my inbox and 42 items on my task list. I’m falling behind on my PKM and my boss is starting to think this is a BFD. Nothing is easy, every single item has its own wicked little problem and is a project in its own right. There is no place to stand and see the birds, or what is blooming, or what is thriving. No sense of completion or “job well done.”
