Shade Tree Wisdom 2/23/10

The advice to me on Sunday about the weather was, “Don’t plan to plant the tomatoes real soon”. He meant another blast of cold was predicted this week. But it did remind me of those tomatoes. In Detroit we had a small patch behind the garage, sunny, and I spaded that by hand and planted 6 plants. That’s really all I needed to do to have a harvest. Plants grew, and they produced tomatoes, red, rich, juicy, sun-warmed, just right for a bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich (That was before that was forbidden food). No luck in Texas at all, and my tomato provider says he is hampered with a rotator cuff problem and won’t plant this year either. It did take initiative and get-with-it to get the job done before we had the harvest.

And that brings me to an interesting question often used by people who decide whom to hire after an interview. They’ll ask, “So, what did you do today?” Kimberly Thompson, a counselor, suggests this question may be a trap, because it does reveal what kind of a work habit a person has. For what you do with your time affects your job search in several ways. Are you busy catching up on some reading in your field, or did you spend a week getting the garage in order. She suggests planning your time is part of the job search process. So be ready to answer that question positively. In short, be prepared.

And that is good advice always. The recent financial crisis had people looking at their credit report more closely. People tried to curb the habit of just using the card whenever they wanted something. Being in debt was no big deal, till it became a big deal. Having good credit suddenly became very important.

St. Peter chimes in with this for us Christians for the daily walk. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorably among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may, by your good works which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation.” The rest of this chapter speaks of this further. 1 Peter 2, 1.2.

Hold off with the planting, but never with the Christian living, “for to this were you called”. May He daily and richly bless this walk.

GPD 2/23/10