Monday Inspiration: Work

"Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."- Albert Einstein

"I put all my genius into life; I put only my talent into my works."- Oscar Wilde

"Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it."- Buddha

My house is slowly emerging out of its clutter. It has been a long process but I actually think we're at the halfway point right now- maybe slightly more disorganized than organized, but we're working on it. Hence the inspiration today; work around the house has me thinking of divisions of labour, unpaid work, paid work, the prices of continency work, the differences between work from home and work at home.

And work from the university me taking heart in that Oscar Wilde quote- not that marking papers requires any talent- but it is something that I just have to do- not to fulfill myself or anything- but just to get it done and out of the way, so that I can put myself into my other jobs- parenting and home, art and cooking.

When I worked outside the house, I used to say I'm working around the house today to mean that I'm doing housework-cooking cleaning, sewing etc.- but now I do my work for pay from home as well, it all feels hectic- there is no Monday to Friday- the part time hours that I work for the university happen in spurts all day long- so there is no designated evening and weekend cleaning. Such is the predicament of the person who works from home, it's a balance I find difficult to maintain in all honesty.

I had to turn down some work last week- and it's still not quite sitting right with me- I think it's because I could technically have done it- I could have put off my laundry and vacuuming, window washing and cooking and got the work done, but instead I stepped back and realized that the money wasn't worth it- the client wanted a lot of attention in a short period at the drop of a hat, and I can't do that, not right now, anyways, not while I have other demanding clients- such as my kid, and myself to think of. It's a hard thing to turn down work, but I think it might just be the biggest bonus about being your own boss.