A Passion for Work

A Passion for Work

Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the ground; for out of it thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and unto the dust shalt thou return.”

I think it curious that God said we should work by the sweat of our face; but He didn’t say we should hate our work, and yet many of us are stuck in careers and jobs we hate.

W

hen I began to shoe horses back in 1963, I had not a clue as to what I was getting myself into, in fact I didn’t even know if I really wanted to shoe horses. After some time I realized I had a real passion for the trade.

Over the 25 years as a professional farrier I had been kicked in the eye, in the side of my head, bitten, pooped on, peed on, driven nails into my hands, my back ruined, and a host of other maladies common to the profession. I had customers cheat me, not pay me, curse me etc. I even had dogs pee in my tool box on the very nails I would hold in my mouth! I worked in the heat of summer with flies swarming around being swatted by the horse’s tail, and my boots covered with manure up to my ankles and the bitter cold of winter with my hands and feet frozen and the nails I’d hold in my mouth froze to my swollen lips, all because of my passion. My hands were so dry from the dirt and manure that my fingers bled almost daily, so I had to wear bandaids on all my fingers.

When I first began I had Veterinarians hang up on me when I called, but in the later years I had several who would call me to do special work for them, many on a mutual client basis, some simply because they either knew me or of me, afterward I became one of the most sought after horseshoers in the front range for many years, all because I developed a passion for my craft and learned everything I could. I learned to shoe gaited horses, draft horses, miniatures and every breed including, performance horses, roping horses, polo horses, race track horses and everything in between, but I excelled in corrective and lameness.

All in all I loved the profession because I had a passion for it. Now that passion is gone and I have a new passion for writing, as a matter of fact I’m writing this blog because of that passion.

Life has a way of pooping and peeing on us no matter what profession we choose. However, it is the passion for the career and not the paycheck, notoriety, popularity or any other thing that causes you to “stick it out” with the good and the bad, no matter what. It is the passion!

Careers come and go and it’s not unheard of to switch careers several times in one’s lifetime because the passions will likewise come and go.

Personally, I’ve had four or five career changes in my life. Each one I developed a passion for it. But when the passion began to wane, for whatever the reason, I knew it was time to make a change.

Each change brought on new responsibilities and new challenges, but like my days as a horseshoer I had no idea of what I was getting into, let alone have a passion for it. The passion always came later.

I’ve known school teachers who started out with a good heart then changed to become an attorney or doctor. I always tell them their education is never wasted. It is always transferable along with all the skills you’ve accumulated. It’s not unheard of to transfer to a totally unrelated field. I did it every time I changed careers. A career change is a change in the field of interest is different as opposed to changing jobs within the same field of interest.

I always tell people, especially to do what they like and are good at, for it usually leads to a passion. But it doesn’t always happen that way. For instance, my current passion is writing, something I absolutely detested in school and earlier life. Perhaps it is the advent of computers and technology which makes it easier to “erase” and restart or delete, but most of all, for myself, it is a whole lot neater and cleaner.

At any rate, pursue your dreams and don’t be afraid to try something new, for perhaps there is a new passion you never thought of, just over the horizon.