In a world of instant gratification and automated processes it is easy to miss the value of our daily accomplishments. In years past, a person did a day’s work and received a day’s pay. Pay they could see and touch. Many professions involved hands on involvement with visible results. Today we’ve created machines to replace most of the human hands involvement and automated banking. These are wonderful inventions that help free our time to do many other things, but something has been lost.

I think we have a fundamental need to see the results of our labors. My value of money is quite distorted simply because I never really see or touch it. The salary check gets deposited electronically into my account and payment of bills is also electronic. I can’t even comprehend how differently I would value and spend it if I held an entire paycheck in cash first.

I have found that there are many simple things I can do to counteract this automated world that robs me of seeing the results of my labors. One thing is to do projects that I can see often - things I did or created with my own hands. This is one element that I LOVE about blogging!! Here’s a picture of one of the biggest I took on - finishing the garage at my first home:

This picture doesn’t do the project justice, but it reminds me of the result. It was fun because it was something I saw EVERY day. I insulated, sheetrocked, taped, mudded, textured, painted and installed the counter and cabinets of that garage. I had such pride knowing I did it all myself!

Decorating projects do this for me too, although they can be a double edged sword because I’m a perfectionist. I hate it when the results don’t match the picture I had in my head and often this can delay me from starting a project. This was one that turned out the way I’d pictured and It was a major boost - this is the daily equivalent to my garage project in my new home. It’s my daughter’s bedroom:

Another project I enjoy is gardening for the same reason. I like seeing the results of my labors and enjoying the spoils of fresh veggies. But it need not be a big project or item to see results. Take my son’s recent work of art at school:

This work of art is a visual representation of my three year old’s ability to learn new things. He’s growing and developing and this simple piece of art shows it. Its display is equally important to him so he can show off his work. You know, when you think about it, there are some things we never really grow out of. *wink*

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