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| Billie Silvey |
| August 2006 |
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| An eclectic website about Women, Christianity, History, Culture and the Arts--and anything else that comes to mind. |
| Here in August, at the height of vacation season, my mind turns to work. Partly, because next month school starts, and my work at the high school will shift into high gear. But also, because I often think about work. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I love work. It may be a sort of collective consciousness. God gave Adam and Eve work to do. He put them in a garden to till it. They were to replenish the earth and provide for themselves and those entrusted to their care. But it’s also training. When I was very young, my Granny taught me that “All honest work is noble.” And she should know. She worked hard all her life to make a home for her two fatherless children. I can only take about a week of vacation without needing some kind of project to occupy my hands and mind. This summer, it’s been organizing. I’ve been organizing the house, organizing the garage, organizing the office, organizing my computers (home and office, or rather, home office and high school office), and organizing my writing. At the high school, I’m writing reports on grants we received, writing new ones, and gearing up for the coming school year. It’s amazing what you can accomplish at a school when there are no students on campus! After 12 years in this house, with two kids adding to the pile of boxes and junk in the garage, we’ve been clearing out and paring down this summer. Getting down to the things we use and arranging them so they’ll be easier to get at. Clear plastic bins so we can see what’s stored--Christmas decorations, scrapbooks and photo albums. Yard tools in one place, hand tools in another, car supplies, BBQ supplies in yet another. I’ve worked all my life--as a child in my father’s newspaper, in two college publicity departments to pay for my education, and as an adult in writing and editing a magazine, keeping house and rearing children, running a nonprofit and working at a school. There are basically two kinds of work--thinking work and doing work; planning work and implementing work, organizing work and producing work. As I grow older, I find myself gravitating toward thinking, planning and organizing, though it’s the doing, implementing and producing that pays real dividends in satisfaction when you see the results of your efforts and wonder how you were able to put up with the mess so long. I’ve reached that point at school. We had a meeting for parents, and I was pleased that the office was so much neater and well-organized than it had been. I even had empty space on my desk for a treasured possession--a picture of my daughter and me holding our new granddaughter on the first Mother’s Day we all celebrated together. Now, if I could just reach that point in the garage! This month we talk about "masters and servants" (employers and employees), about working for God, and about three Christian bosses. I’d love to hear your thoughts about work. Don’t hesitate to click on my email address, b.silvey@sbcglobal.net. |
| Work |
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