We Are The Eighth Day (of Creation)

The idea of work (craft) being a way by which "the affluence of heaven and earth shall stream into you", has become a fundamental tenet for me; particularly in the last couple of years.

Growing up my mom always said "idle hands are the devil's workshop", which is true, but I overlooked the complementary truth- active hands are the tools of God, in the ongoing act of creation. Our work is the eighth day, so to speak.

Because vice and addiction can be easy to recognize, they take an unfair amount of blame for the unhappiness that abounds in our society.

I think the more common source of unhappiness for us is simply lack of meaningful work.

This is also true of retired empty-nest parents. Children as a sole source of duty and purpose does not last forever.

There are many older parents who have turned hopeless and bitter because they have not found a new source of purpose for their later years.

I believe it is this lack that led me down the dark paths I took in my teens and twenties.

And now I am seeing, in real-time, the loss of meaningful work destroy the happiness of older (retired) people I love.

I hesitate to even use the word "work", because it has become so twisted by economic discourse, and has an incredibly broad set of personal definitions.

We've become so lost that we struggle to even articulate what we're searching for.

A retired person recently confided that they were feeling so hopeless, they were considering taking a position at Walmart.

And I know this can be a completely valid and effective path for some people.

But it says so much about our condition as a society, that people equate jobs = work = craft, and are desperately reaching for meaning from big-box retail employment.

We often fail to realize that "the door by which the affluence of heaven streams" could be found in our own kitchen, workshop, community, canvas, or garden.

No matter what your work, let it be your own. No matter what your occupation, let what you are doing be organic, let it be in your bones. In this way it will open the door by which the affluence of heaven and earth shall stream into you. -Emerson