Fruits of Labor

This was my counter at harvest time a year and a half ago. As you can tell from this picture, I was overwhelmed with the amount of produce I had to use or store so that it wouldn't go to waste.





It took a lot of work to get it like this:



Now, many times in my life I have tried getting around work by looking for a short cut or just trudging through it, hoping for it to end. A perfect example of this is the time when I was a little girl and couldn't leave my room until it was clean, so I just shoved all my toys and clothes under the bed.

Since then, I've discovered the wondrous enjoyment derived from doing work. There is a certain satisfaction that just can't be replaced by taking a short cut or having someone else do it for you. I realized this more fully while spending three days in a row to get to the bottom of all those boxes of apples, and what I kept reminding myself when my back ached from standing all day and when I burned myself from the hot apple jam mix that jumped right out of the pot and landed on my wrist.

The same goes for writing. Even though there have been times I have wished for some kind of magic wand I could wave and all my thoughts would fill my blank computer screen, ready for submission, there really are no short cuts. Each word in a book needs to be typed in one word at a time. But the thing is, each step along the way can be rewarding, simply because it does take a lot of thought and work to dream up, brainstorm, outline, type, revise (sometimes again and again), and edit a story.

I believe that work was intended to be a great blessing to us throughout our lives, whether it's a desk job, manual labor, raising children, or what have you. Work has the potential to create great happiness and a sense of accomplishment.