Manual Labor

I don't do a lot of manual labor. During gardening season I do labor outdoors. These past winter months, I have been laboring once a week is in the pottery studio, at times "fighting" with the clay. It doesn't really feel like "labor" as I sit there trying (in the words of my instructor) to "show the clay who is boss"!

But after my three hours in the studio and my evening sculptural pottery class, I feel exhausted! I have had a workout!

So I read with interest Joan Chittister's definitation of manual labor as a "commitment to the stewardship of the earth... that we bear the responsibility for...in our own bodies."

She adds that manual labor is the great equalizer: "The rich do not sweep faster or better than the poor... Manual labor is humility in practice."