Ah Friday. Can I tell you how ecstatic I am that it is the end of my work week? I could, if I had the energy. There used to be an old beer commercial back in the 80s or sometime that said, “Now comes Miller time.” The implication of course was that at the end of a long, hard day at work “when it’s time to relax, Miller stands clear…if you’ve got the time, we’ve got the beer…” Now, I’m not a beer drinker–never developed a taste for it. But I can definitely relate to it being Miller time or at least a time to relax.
This has been a long week. I know I say that a lot and my intention is not to become a broken record, but it’s been another week that’s felt like two. Last Saturday evening I got back from New Orleans and have only one weekend day to recover from my trip before hurtling into a hectic week full of meetings and deadlines. The week and weekend before that was also packed with activities and deadlines. So this weekend will be the first one in a few weeks in which life will slow down a bit for me to catch my breath. Mind you, I still have housecleaning, grocery shopping, and some of my regular weekend events as well as a few work files I brought home. Still, my intention is that it be relatively restful all things considered, beginning tonight.
I am grateful to have a job that I enjoy and that allows me to live relatively comfortably, particularly as measured in various places around the country and world. I am grateful that I work at a job that meets during “regular” business hours–banker’s hours from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, which is why I can be grateful for Saturdays and Sundays. My brother has worked two and three jobs to support his family. This has meant that weekends for him provided no respite from work. It all sort of blurs from one workplace to another. I have seen what hard work looks like. I have even done hard work, physically demanding work back when I worked on a farm in college. Doing my masters research on another farm, I worked long hours in the cattle pens and in the labs, collecting and analyzing various samples Sunday through Monday at all hours of the day and night. Now I have become settled and comfortable in my work routine. Hard mental labor for nine or ten hours per day, for five days a week for about 48 weeks of the year. I have it good and I know it. And I am grateful for it.
I can remember what it was like to be unemployed or underemployed, to be wishing for the continuity of a regular work day and the comfort and relief of a regular paycheck. I remember worrying about the impact of not using my mind in intense, engaged, and exciting ways. I worried that my skills would be come dull. I need not have worried. Besides the fact that I worked some contract gigs during that time, I kept my mind sharp largely working in areas with which I had no familiarity. I had to exercise mental different muscles, use different skills, and where I started out knowing little to nothing about the industry in which I was working, in a matter of a few short months I was producing good enough work that the agency I was contracting with wanted me to stay and keep working with them. I might have too if I hadn’t found a full-time job back in the field of work in which I’ve been employed for almost 30 years.
I am grateful to be working, to be using my mind, energy, heart and spirit in service to various groups of people. It’s interesting that my work has largely been with and on behalf of people given that growing up I preferred to spend time with four-legged animals. They were so much less complicated than my fellow humans. And yet here I am doing work I have no doubt I am called to do until I have leave to retire back to the farm. Who knows when that’s going to be. So for now, I work. And on the weekends I rest. And it is good.
