My brother shared this poem with my sister who shared it with me.
And I read it through tears.
How do words sometimes have so much power?
Anyway, I wanted to share it because I’ve been thinking about work in the new year. How sometimes we have to plow through being “submerged” to learn and grow.
And become our better selves.

Peter Christian Thamsen Skovgaard | Two Oxen Pulling a Cart | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
To Be of Use
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
–Marge Piercy
That is beautiful and inspiring. Thank you and happy new year.
Beautiful!
Question. Can you tell me what color of white you used to paint in your new house? I used the same color in my house and always referred to your home blog post about it to remember the color, not a great plan. I can’t get to your home blog, so I would appreciate so much if you could tell me what color white it was :). Thank you!!
It’s “Whisper White” from Dunn Edwards. Hope that helps!