The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (Genesis 2:15 (ESV)
Labor Day weekend is often called the official end of summer. In past years it signaled the start of school. It’s not that way anymore in our state since the schools are air-conditioned now and the legislature mandated a certain number of instruction days. The air conditioning mattered because before that, those classrooms got very warm. Even with all the windows open. You put 30 plus warm little kids in a room and the temperature of the place goes up. The teacher’s temperature generally went up too so the school systems waited until the weather cooled or at least not that many extra hot summer days remained. If the heat rose in September, extra recess time could be given. Things were more relaxed back when and more in the control of the school principal. The mandated instruction days mattered since some days are generally missed due to snow-covered roads making it dangerous to drive the buses in the winter months. Those days that are missed have to be made up and can’t be waved off the way they used to be if an excessive number of days were missed. So they start school early to be sure to get those days in and still get out of school before many June days pass.
In the picture, my husband is showing the grandkids that farming can be fun if you’re the one getting to drive the tractor.
I grew up on a farm. Labor Day was often just that. A day we had to work putting in the crop. When I was a kid, most every farmer in Kentucky raised burley tobacco. Even a small landowner could have a patch of tobacco to help pay his bills and make Christmas happier for his family. My dad not only raised the tobacco he was allowed to grow on his own farm but also raised tobacco on the shares on other farms. (The government assigned quotas for how many acres a farmer could grow based on the amount of land he owned.) That made for plenty of work on Labor Day weekend and most every other September day as the tobacco was always ready to be cut and hung in barns to dry at that time. No picnics and trips to the pool for us. If it wasn’t raining, we were out in the field working. So to be honest, I was always more than glad for school to start and keep me out of the fields at least most of the day.
But hard work never killed anybody. I’m sure you’ve heard that said before. I guess it’s not absolutely true since people have died of heat strokes or various other dangers while working hard. However, most of us survive, and I did for sure. May not have always been happy but I always made it through the busy work times on the farm.
Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds. ~Gordon B. Hinckley
Now I still live on a farm, but the tobacco programs were all cut out long ago. I don’t miss having to work in tobacco. We just have a few beef cows now and my husband cuts hay for them. And I take walks with my dogs through the fields.
I dreamed of working as a writer back when I was a kid too. Actually did scribble away in my notebooks in between school and chores. It wasn’t work then. It was fun and dreams all wrapped up together. Eventually writing did become my work, a completely different kind of work than that I did on the farm. Now I work with my fingers and brain typing out stories. Not on a typewriter like this but a word processor. Hardly any work at all on my fingers these days as keyboards don’t take strong fingers the way those old typewriters used to, but it’s still plenty of work on my brain as I make up characters to live out my stories.
Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. ~Stephen King
I’m blessed to be able to do work I love. Blessed even more that my stories get published and readers like you read them. But writing a novel isn’t always a walk in the park. Sometimes it’s more like a marathon that has taken a lot of training and endurance. Even labor. But today I celebrate the blessing of work. Work gives a person a certain feeling of accomplishment whether that work is writing the end to a novel or folding a load of laundry or baling a field of hay or whatever job you do. If it’s honest labor then it’s worthwhile.
Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you. ~Saint Augustine
Do you think work and the ability to do that work is a blessing?
Thanks for reading.
Comments 4
I also hated working in the tobacco fields! And we had a lot of acres! My Dad, like your family, raised tobacco on other properties as well and we were usually finishing up stripping it around the middle of the market selling time, way after Christmas and the first of the year. As long as there was work to do, whether in the tobacco, picking corn, baling hay, milking the cows, hoeing the acres of garden that we had or whatever, the work always came before the holidays. Even Christmas! Many a Christmas day was spent stripping tobacco instead of celebrating with family and friends.
When my brothers (who are still farmers) were married, their wives make sure no holiday is left uncelebrated! They stop what they are doing and celebrate with their wives families! Since the passing of our parents and our younger brother, we no longer get together for anything anymore. (My oldest brother s’ wife and his decision.)
I loved school and still do! I guess that’s why I became a teacher! I am and always have been a preschool teacher; although, my Teacher’s License goes up to middle school. I love working with the little ones, though!
Did you receive my note, or should say letter, since it was so long, several weeks ago?
Author
I did get your e-mail, Linda, and just answered it a while ago. Sorry to be a little late with that. I sometimes get behind on answering mail. But I did read it as soon as I got it. It was fun to find out your connections to my family and the area where I live.
I’m sorry you and your siblings don’t get together. That’s easy to happen after our parents pass on as they are often the glue that holds brothers and sisters together. I hope you’ll have some reunions and times together in the future.
Fun that you’ve always been a preschool teacher. That is such a special calling to take those very young ones and help them get a good start in school.
I’m grateful as I can tell you are too that I don’t have to do that farm work anymore. My dad did always take time for Christmas and would for Thanksgiving unless it rained and brought the tobacco into case. Seems like it always rained! The two of us have some things in common, growing up farm girls.
I definitely think work and the ability to do that work is a blessing. Hard work instills values and a sense of pride in oneself when a good job is completed. We should all be thankful for the job we have or had and as we go down life’s road, with every task we undertake, let’s do our best!
Author
I agree completely, Melanie. Doing a task well helps us feel better about ourselves even if it’s a simple thing like cleaning our houses or mowing our yards or a big thing like completing a difficult work related project. I do want to do my best as I think about writing my next book.