BEFORE ENLIGHTENMENT CHOP WOOD, CARRY WATER. AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT CHOP WOOD, CARRY WATER Zen proverb

    Today is Labor Day. It is the US holiday that began from the death of several workers during a strike in New York City in 1882. Long lost is the first meaning of this day for in the 21st century it is more traditionally celebrated as the end of summer, even though the season of summer does not end for several more weeks. To me, it is a day to "chill" and enjoy the cooler weather, an excuse to eat those things I don't normally eat and to do whatever I want. Today I plan to swim, shop, get a pedicure and work on my writing before heading back to my counseling job tomorrow. Which brings me to the subject of the Zen proverb above....Work.

    To some people work is a necessary evil, to others it is their life's passion, to many it is an means to an end. According to the proverb it is what we do whether enlightened or not, for enlightenment, peace and happiness come from within not from the environment beyond us. I have felt work as a necessary evil, a means to an end and as a passion in various forms throughout my life. I have worked as a newspaper carrier, a car hop, a life guard, a camp counselor, a ward clerk and a lab assistant in a hospital, a lab tech in the Army, a receptionist, a word processor, an HR representative, an HR supervisor, an HR manager, and a licensed professional counselor first in a private practice and now working with the military. But my true passion has transcended all of these, beginning many, many years ago when I was barely a teen. My true passion is to write. I have written research papers, poems, articles, song lyrics, short stories and books. I have been writing in a journal almost every day since I was in the Army. Before then and certainly before e-mail, I wrote about my life as letters sent to friends and family as I moved about the country and world. I was spurred on by my passion and by the high praise I received about my skill. And today my Labor of Love on this Labor Day is to continue to write. Today I take a leap of faith, believing that as this is my passion I will continue to write until the day I die, knowing that in some time and space of my future life here on earth, my passion will become my career, my job, my form of prosperity. Until then writing is my love, never ending, always present, exactly where I want to be.