Hot work

 September 5, 2023

Yesterday and today have been scorchers! I didn’t actually look at the thermometer, but when I was cutting the briars along the creek bank so I could get at a couple of dead ash that the tree service missed, it only took about 20 minutes of work to completely take the wind out of my sails. I got the job done, and four more trees are down and at least partially cut up, but both yesterday and today, that little bit of physical work did me in. I had planned on working my bees today. I need to take off some honey and start getting them ready for the goldenrod. I can smell the goldenrod in the air—my favorite aroma of September. But it was too hot to don the bee suit. I don’t know how the southern beekeepers do it.

This afternoon, Linda and I watched grandson Nathan and his team play soccer. The halves are 40 minutes, and usually played without rest. Today, each half was stopped midway so the kids could hydrate and rest. Did I mention that it was HOT today? 

There are times when an outdoor job of physical labor have appealed to me, but there are also times like yesterday and today, when I’m glad I don’t have to do it all day long. Yesterday was Labor Day. We enjoyed a neighborhood picnic in the evening, but I wonder how often we reflect on the reason for the day—to pay tribute to those who work, often at menial tasks or the jobs no one else wants to do. They can’t work from home, and show up in the worst possible weather, plowing streets, fixing downed wires, cleaning septic tanks, repairing highways.

The Fourth Commandment usually is remembered only as the foundation for our Sabbath, a weekly day of rest. We often forget the rest of it: “Six days shalt thou work.” I am grateful to have had the privilege of working with my mind more than my body, and now to be retired. Retirement doesn’t exempt me from the commandment, though, so tomorrow, I will rise, offer myself once more to God, and get busy with the work of the day.