Work is living in relationship to the world.
I put myself into the ground I till
and the bread I knead and bake.
I build my shelter and my days
with patience and the application of skill.
I shape places for myself
and those entrusted to me.
Work molds the earth into a medium of love,
making stones into bricks,
and bridges,
or visions into pictures
and sounds and marks into words
that reach the heart.
Work is not selling myself,
reducing myself to a product for others to consume.
Work expresses me as a person
and its rightful wage is respect,
honor,
stature as a human being,
access to the elements of freedom,
resources to live as a person
and to care for those entrusted to me.
The adequate response to human work
is gratitude.
