When I was a kid, I had some learning disabilities, and I got the strong message (at school) that, for success, I should just work a little harder. They didn’t know, in those days, that kids with learning disabilities are already working hard, and I, having nothing to compare it with, didn’t know, either. I just kept trying (and ultimately failing) to work harder. So, although there were probably only a few people who ever thought I should work harder, I started thinking it of myself. And even now, after two decades of success in a profession where the job descriptions say “infinite” and where, therefore, good boundaries between work and home and work and rest are an absolute necessity, I still catch myself thinking that my life would be under control if I would just work a little harder.

In the midst of that impossibly energetic agenda, it is a good thing that the seasons roll around, more or less on time, without my having to work harder. I take that, as well as the phases of the moon and the year’s wheel of holidays and holy days, as reminder that my little schemes of self-management are not the be-all and end-all of my life. Plenty of good things are going to happen to me by dint of grace and nature rather than my work, and no amount of work is going to put me in control of my life.

Remind me of this on the day that my fruit trees get zapped by the frost or my tomato plants get shredded by hail…no amount of work puts me in control of my life. That being the case, my life’s task is to appreciate the good things that do come, relax into them, and learn to trust, rather than to clutch, as I go about my life’s work and rest. I enjoy the Spring sunshine, the budding trees, the waxing moon, and holiday customs and gatherings, both for themselves and for their message of the abundance in our lives of goodness and plenty and love.