Amy in the Garden

I had it wrong all along. I thought the 7 dwarves were singing happily about going TO work. In fact, they were heigh-ho-ing on the way home. Witness:

We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig from early morn till night
We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig up everything in sight
We dig up diamonds by the score
A thousand rubies, sometimes more
But we don’t know what we dig ’em for
We dig dig dig a-dig dig

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
Heigh-ho

[Chorus]
Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho
It’s home from work we go
[Whistle]

I guess if I were digging gems by the score, but didn’t know what for, I’d heigh-ho about leaving, too.

This is my 100th post, and I had always planned to write it about Work (yes, cap “W”). Ironically, I was laid off two weeks ago, and so I have been thinking a LOT about work since then, and mostly outside the structure of this blog. I have my breath back, I am gearing up for re-entry into Interview World, and while I appreciate that the dwarves were happy to go home, I still feel that an additional verse with the dwarves singing heigh-ho about having a job would be appropriate, and appreciated by millions of Americans.

Work has so many definitions. Here’s a snippet from Merriam-Webster, that I’ve edited heavily for space reasons:

1
: activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something: a : sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result
2
a : energy expended by natural phenomena b : the result of such energy (sand dunes are the work of sea and wind)
3
a : something that results from a particular manner or method of working, operating, or devising (careful police work) (clever camera work>)
4
a : a fortified structure (as a fort, earthen barricade, or trench)
5
plural but sing or plural in constr : a place where industrial labor is carried on : plant, factory
6
plural : the working or moving parts of a mechanism (the works of a clock)
7
a : something produced or accomplished by effort, exertion, or exercise of skill (this book is the work of many hands)
8
plural : performance of moral or religious acts (salvation by works)
9
a : effective operation : effect, result (wait for time to do its healing work)
10
: the material or piece of material that is operated upon at any stage in the process of manufacture
11
plural a : everything possessed, available, or belonging (the whole works, rod, reel, tackle box, went overboard) (ordered pizza with the works)

Clearly, I am not the first person to consider the import of this word!

My husband and I are typical New Yorkers when it comes to Work. We always had our job that paid the rent, and our “real” job, which was our art. The New Yorkers I knew that didn’t have this incredible drive didn’t last long — they moved to another part of the country, or to another country entirely. New Yorkers are much maligned by the rest of the country for being pushy, rude, loud, entitled.

That’s correct, we are. I take those charges as a point of pride, because we are like that not because we’re raised poorly, but because we are DRIVEN.

New York is all about work, about being the best, all the time, and first, if you can manage it. It is exhausting, and a source of great satisfaction. And while I find it intolerable to live in Manhattan because of the noise and lack of the scent of fresh soil and living plants, I find proximity to the city’s energy and tremendous drive to be Life affirming and the best incentive to work I have ever found.

Husband and I always said that we couldn’t wait for retirement, because then we could work full-time at our real jobs. For him that means his art, and for me that means my writing. And my gardening. And my animals, and pressed flowers, and cooking and preserving. And writing (again!).

As I was thinking about this blog, and what work meant to me, I wandered around the garden and the house, and took photos of all of the different kinds of work that I regularly do. I know I am not unique, and I’m not looking for praise. I just wanted to demonstrate how busy we ALL are, and how work can be defined, even outside of Merriam-Webster, in so many ways.

Of course, it starts with my computer, where I am sitting right now, talking with you:

And to my right is a laundry rack, pressed (ha) into service as a drying rack for my wooden alpaca ornaments. I thought it would be interesting to make alpaca ornaments in various woods that match the natural colors of alpaca fiber. I’d noticed at craft fairs and farm stores that while there are often ornaments of sheep, there were no ornaments of alpacas — and I figured I was just the gal to do this work:

And here is a close-up of an ornament. It is made from tulip wood, to suggest a rose-gray fleece:

Husband painted 6 original paintings of alpacas and then made notecards of them. They are boxed for me to sell. And this work was a labor of love:

The front of a boxed set....

....and the back of a boxed set.

Less satisfying kinds of work include:

The horror of housework....

And training my dogs to the invisible fence. While useful and ultimately life-saving, it is a tough job for a parent of puppies.

...and sometimes being asked to help Youngest to review her schoolwork. It is very hard Work for me to not reveal how much I've forgotten about every subject she's studying.

Happily, Will has his art as work:

"Light Song, The Beeches" And yes, it is for sale!!

And of course, I have my beloved garden. Here are a few photos of garden-related work:

My leather gloves, so worn, and so beautiful.

The slope garden in this Winter That Wasn't, resting, and preparing to release all that stored energy as soon as the daylight hours lengthen.

My vegetable garden, fortified with compost, and waiting for the sun to warm the soil. I will be out there immediately, planting peas and spinach when that happy event occurs.

Even the prospect of weeding, at least in the early spring, is pleasant to anticipate. And I do admire their tenacity and chutzpah: Where do weeds get the nerve to survive the winter in such colorful fashion, when the soft gray-green lambs ears have faded so?

And so, while I wait for the time to roll around to do the work of starting seedlings indoors, I read, and I think about work.

I know that it is important to me as a means to support my family, of course, but I have also concluded that it is a part of who I am. I am Amy that works all the time, and likes it, who looks forward to retiring so that I can work full-time at the all of the worthy tasks I have found in my life. Well, except housework.

WORDS FROM OTHERS

I’m not the only one that has sometimes found it difficult to do good work:

“It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.”

― Rod Serling (1924-1975)