It Ain't Like Cleaning Windows

  

All my life, my occupations have consisted of blue-collar jobs, most of which were outdoors, so, embedded in my psyche, when I think of work, I think of toiling with my hands, dirty, sweaty and strenuous.

 

But now I'm making the transition from the outdoor labor I'm familiar with to the mostly indoor work associated with Bob Doll Studios, and all it entails. It is a bit of a challenge. Actually, it's a considerable challenge. It’s a paradigm shift, 

a complete change of mindset.

 

My work no longer appears as a daily series of physical labors of the body but as a catalogue of mental tasks. This is a whole new world for me and one to which I'm unaccustomed.

 

Gone are the mornings when I would pray for the inspiration needed to venture into the gleaning fields and endeavor all day in the hot sun or the cold, stinging wind.

 It's a world I found predictable and controllable even though unpleasant. 

Now I seek wisdom to toil not in the fields but at a home studio, climate-controlled and safe, trying to answer the true calling in my life, one I should have answered many years ago. It may not be as predictable to me, not yet, but neither were the initial treks into the promised land. 

 

As they say, “be careful what you pray for. You might get it.”

 

Instead of writing estimates, I’m writing proposals. Instead of climbing a ladder, I’m counting pages. Instead of checking the forecast for rain, I’m closing the window blinds to prevent a glare on my computer screen. Instead of applying sunscreen, I'm turning away from the window so I won’t be distracted. Instead of drenching my head in cool water, I’m having another a cup of coffee.

 

It’s a different world, indeed.

 

When cleaning windows, I could track the progress I was making by counting the number of windows I cleaned, and I could also see with my eyes how much I still had left and I knew how long it would take me to complete. I also knew exactly the compensation I would receive at the end of the job.

 

I had a good reputation so finding new and repeat customers was fairly easy but now it’s as if I’m starting all over again.

 

It will take some time and adjustments to complete my success as a cartoonist, writer and instructor 

but succeed I will.

 

“…we should not be like cringing, fearful slaves, but we should behave like God’s very own children, adopted into the bosom of his very own family…” Romans 8:15