All around, people are already launching into their Labor Day weekend with gusto, so let’s do the same!

As we move into the realm of leaves and harvest, of back to school and yellow buses, let’s take time over the next few days to ponder the nature of our livelihood as scribes and storytellers: It is a sacred calling. Kahlil Gibran said that “work is love made visible,” surely a beautiful thought to take with us as we set forth each day on the page. And to help us make the most of each day’s labor, let’s keep in mind Kahlil’s powerful poem, “On Work,” which I quote in part here:

On Work
Kahlil Gibran

“You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons,
and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and
proud submission towards the infinite.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours
turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret…”

Wishing you and yours a peaceful, fruitful Labor Day weekend. Write on!