confucian wisdom

Confucius is credited with saying that if we choose a job we love, we'll never have to work a day in our lives. Confucius knew his stuff.

My "office" for the past week

I just got back from a week in western new york state, "working" in a charming city on the southeastern shore of Lake Ontario. I thought Lake Champlain, which I see every day, was big. Ha! For the first time in my life I understood why the Great Lakes are great. I couldn't fathom the breadth of that lake, the sheer amount of water it holds or the distance it covers.

We were there to put on the town's first ever dragon boat festival. My role - to teach novice paddlers the dragon boat stroke, to get them working together as a team and prepare them for racing. My "job" involves meeting new people, laughing with them, encouraging them, turning their self-doubt into success and seeing them grin with pride at their accomplishments. I get to yell and scream until my voice is hoarse, my hair tangled and unkempt, and my cheeks red from sun and wind. I've never been this color of honey, despite so many summers laying out trying to tan. I hold the fate of twenty-one people in my hands as I guide these big boats around all kinds of waters and down a racecourse. It's an awesome responsiblity - one I never dreamed even existed, much less that I would have it one day.

We were a team of three for most of the week. Our days were mostly free: I worked on some of my freelance projects, finalized the curricula for the classes I'm teaching, and took the rest of the time to explore our host city. Invariably, the water drew me down. I never tire of it, of looking at it. It looks different every day, every hour. In the evening, after the 'normal' workday was over, we held training sessions for those teams who had signed up to race in Saturday's festival. We took twenty-odd people, of all shapes and sizes, some fit, some not, and turned them into athletes for a little while. Individually, they were rather unremarkable. Together, they were amazing. They bonded, they strategized, they listened, learned, applied the lessons they'd learned. I joke around a lot with my crews, I make fun of them (in a good-natured way of course) and build up their confidence unti they believe they can win. Ha - they don't know that even before the races are held, they've already won!

I love what I do. I truly love what I do. I don't work. This isn't work. This is living. How blessed am I?