Bull Work Allows Time For Reflection

As many times as I forget this maxim, I am reminded of the sheer joy of building a wall, back-filling some dirt for flowers to grow and generally make the soil a more hospitable place for life. I began, I suppose knee deep in water building walls. Frequently streams would eddy and slow just a bit by the time we had positioned hundreds of stones end to end across a small stream's breadth. I never knew why, but that activity, or any sort of wall building exercise is fun, always a challenge and always way more work than you think it will be before you start. The joy is there at the end of the project, but whilst in the mix of  doing it, a calm takes over, a peace that is rare in modern life.
Tons more dirt to move and yet, nearly half the fill is in! During the past week, harvesting bricks, moving trees and plants, etching the surface deep enough to lay in the bottom tier of bricks, making sure it was somewhat straight and level, then shifting huge quantities of dirt across the yard to back fill. Second verse, same as the first. The saving grace was that near the front yard, the ground sloped up enough that I only used a brick and a half. That way I could shift less dirt, stay relatively level for the entire 102 foot length and keep the height just enough to discourage the possible mower deck infraction up against our fence. Point is, the endless hours doing mundane work allow the mind a chance to see what is really going on with things that get overlooked in day to day life.
No words can describe the calm reflection that is possible when confronted with endless hours of stacking, shoveling and putting brick to brick, stone to stone or any other material at your disposal in service to the earth. Harmony comes closest for me, in describing the feeling, but each will find their own version of bliss when trying this exercise. Frequently organisms make themselves known to you, moving dirt, like turning compost aerates and mixes those inhabiting it into quite a jumble. Inoculating soils with organisms is most of the fun. A layer of this and a bit of that combine to create endless combinations. Like with all creatures, the nexus of their activities overlap at the "edge".  Just as variety is the spice of life for humans, bacteria, fungi and a host of other critters live where they can find three things, food & water, a safe place to reproduce and exchange gasses. When all those things combine, viola, life increases exponentially.
These dozen or so days, toiling may seem a waste to some, but to the future generations of life in my backyard, that will have an awesome quality of life, my efforts make the difference between life and death. Whether they are presented more habitat or not is the result of my effort, there is a sublime peace that comes over one who touches the Earth this intimately. After spending time thinking about getting things in order, making sure all the resources are on hand and that the right mix of elements are present for those who will live in the soils, it is good to remember that our own affairs are much like the building of the wall itself.
Our experiences and education are like amassing the materials. The plan, as many of us realize part way through life, may need a bit of change, depending on the lay of the land and the variety that we infuse into our lives are what lead to tilth, not just in the soil, but in life itself. Just as a sweater will unravel if you just pull one strand, our lives are all one thing.
The fact that we see things, individual items and their attainment as real, is not fact at all. We are only deluding ourselves. What is real is the tie that binds it all together. The meanings and messages that surround us are not disparate elements either, the flow of objects and ideas is like a torrent and by moving your body steadily and doing basic boring work, we can attune to a different time signature of life. Giving, only as fast as one can and taking prudent and determined steps toward the goal, lead to a calm enough mind to relax, slow down and gaze more steadily upon what is of true importance in our lives as well as those of the people around us who we care about.
Blessings and may you too find a boring job to fall into, the results might surprise you, they always do me.