Work can be a means to an end. The end being to obtain the resources and freedom to do the things we enjoy.

I bumped into an old neighbour on the seafront first thing this morning. He’s been a gardener of different descriptions over the years, always self employed, now working with his son.

He’s getting on and I asked him if he’d got plans to stop.

”Not Till I Drop. I enjoy the work”, he said.

(Albeit, he’ll be glad to finish the job he’s on at the moment).

There’s nothing wrong with working for the pay check. We do all sorts of things that “hurt” in the short term to gain more long term benefits. But overall the aim has surely got to be, like Ian, to spend as much time as possible doing the things that we enjoy and gain satisfaction from.

Maybe that will involve finding a way to extract more enjoyment out of work that was previously just about “paying the bills”. Or it could be about changing what we do. Every one’s situation is different, but it is no sin to make our own enjoyment of life the aim.

For my old neighbour, I’d like to imagine that the last thing he does, before he “drops”, might be to plant a bulb, look up to the sky, and know that he’s added little bit of beauty to the future world.