This is It

Ok, I’ll put my insulated overalls on and go shovel. But first, one more cup of coffee.

It’s winter, and I chose this. I chose to build this wall now. It’s time to go to work. First, I’ll shovel my own driveway. When I get to the job site, I’ll clear a path to the stone pile, dig around the excavator and skid steer, and make space for us to work.

It’s easy to see this as something to get through before the “real” work begins. I often feel that way about a lot of things. But, if I resent the snow, if I rush through shoveling it, impatient to start laying stones, it’s going to be a long, cold winter.

Last week, before I started this job, I spent a day gathering tools and supplies. In my head, I called it “running errands.” I filled the truck with fuel, bought new drill bits and marking crayons, picked up extra feathers and wedges. I loaded everything into the truck, ready for an early start the next morning. The whole time, I was low-key annoyed that I had to do this instead of what I thought of as “real work.”

I think that’s how most of us live most of the time. We hurry through seemingly mundane tasks, anxious to reach some better, more important moment. But that moment never arrives. There’s always one more thing to cross off the list before life really begins.

Somehow, we forget. Gathering supplies is the work. Shoveling snow is the work. Sitting here with a coffee right now is my life.