One of my first jobs was as a fill-in for the shipping clerk of a company that makes industrial ladders.  He was the brother-in-law of the owner and was going to be out for 3 months for something medical.  Maybe he had a heart attack and was healing?  I don’t really recall.

My job was to contact the trucking company that would get the shipments to the company that ordered them and to make the shipping labels.

I was surprised to find the copying of the labels to be very soothing.  When, I commented on that to a friend who was also a priest, he wasn’t surprised at all.  He told me that monks have a period of repetitive work included in their day and that it is intended to be a time of meditation.

Since then, I have found satisfaction in awareness of contemplative work.  

I work in a reference lab and the repetition in pipetting batches of samples and reagents into vials is very satisfying.  The fact that it is useful work is too.  Any annoyances I have with my job are not with the work itself, but with the people who interrupt my flow.  I’m fortunate that the people who work during my regular shift seem to have the same appreciation of flow that I do.

What is a bird for the evening?

Three decades ago, I learned that I really am most alert in the latter part of the day.  I drove my mother crazy, reading by the hall light until midnight.  And when I went to college, I arranged all my classes to be after 10 AM.

I can do third shift when I must.  But, that isn’t the best time for me  for an extended time.  I don’t sleep well in the daylight. Not for long periods any way.  Even if I’ve been up all night, I start waking up around ps noon and have to fight my psyche to stay asleep.

Unfortunately, Spring is happening and I need to get out of my bed to get things done in my yard while it is cool.  So, I need to rearrange my habits.  Lingering over coffee for 2 or 3 hours while I read the internet isn’t going to work anymore.  That needs to wait for 80F.  Or when I’m too tired to drag brush back to the woods.

(The amount of money we spend on mulch is ridiculous,)

Time is a construct created by Man to order his life.  But, temperature is a brute that is unaffected by our needs, wants or opinions.