Discovering the Joy of Life in Our Daily Tasks

February 8th, 2018

By Jessie Klassen

Contributing writer for Wake Up World

“Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.” ~ Zen proverb.

When you live on a farm, such as I do, your day is centred around your chores. There are mouths to feed (both human and animal) that depend on you, and they will always come first. All other activities happen somewhere between these daily chores.

When I was a child, my parents had a herd of milk cows, and this meant that twice a day they would need to be milked. I remember Christmas mornings, anxiously waiting for chores to be done so that we could open our presents, or on Halloween night so that we could go trick-or-treating (we were often the last kids walking from door to door).

My parents taught my siblings and I the importance of “getting our chores done”, and we simply knew that everything else came second to this. But I have to credit my parents for never making chores feel like a “chore.”

As children, my siblings and I accompanied our parents to the barn and were included in all of their work, but this was also a time that we spent together as a family and they always took advantage of opportunities for play. I learned how to 2-step in the alleyway of our barn in my rubber boots while David Lee Murphy sang, “Dust on the Bottle” over the rhythmic suction of the milking machines. I played with the cats, kept company with the pigs, and talked with the calves in the warm coziness of our barn…

As we no longer have milk cows, our list of daily chores has changed a little. But we still have cattle, and so we still have many mouths to feed, and as any farmer will tell you, their animals will always eat before they do.

CONTINUE READING:

Recommended articles by Jessie Klassen:

• 5 Lessons From The Animal Kingdom
• Speak to the Trees – A Spiritual Perspective on Nature
• 5 Important Lessons for Raising Children in The New Energetic Paradigm
• How to Communicate With Our Pets and Honour Their Soul Purpose
• Parents: We Are The Ground Crew of the Awakening
• “Talk to the Trees” – A Simple Exercise to Develop Your Communication with Nature
• 6 Simple Ways to Keep You and Your Family Grounded

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