Lynda’s Journal of Blessings – #770 – Work (Physical)
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On this journey of sharing BLESSINGS
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Lynda’s Journal of Blessings – #770
>> WORK (Physical) <<
Visit my blog: Walking by Inner Vision, since December 2009.
_My Thoughts
Let’s talk about how we do our WORK!
I will write about my “work” in two articles. Today, I am focused on the physicality of my personal and professional life.
Hands are a symbol of life activities in Art, Gardening, and
Life – in – General for a Mom, Grandma, and Great Grandma.
Next week, I’ll focus on the spiritual aspects I have discovered over the years of working with my hands.
Please join me today, as I write about painting and the work of my hands in art and in everyday life.
FIRST_
I woke up at 3 a.m.. That is usually my best time to get up for the day.
Rising early is intentional and I devote the early hours to prayer, praise, and listening in the quietness of my “prayer closet.” That happens to be my library! This is where I begin each day in the darkness of the Fourth Watch of the Night. My favorite time of the 24-hour cycle.
I immediately thought about what my topic for next Sunday’s Blessing article. would be.
At that precise moment, I also heard that still, small, inner voice say – “Painting.” I looked down at my hands, and I smiled, “Painting?, I said this aloud. Then, I thought. “Of Course, it is painting!” Painting is a companion to my hands! I had to laugh at this connection.
What is there about my hands?
A quick glance at my hands revealed it all.
No long fingernails, no nail polish, and no manicure.
I can’t be bothered to take time for those things.
These hands are made for a woman who does physical WORK.
My hands show the passage of time and how I spend my days in the warm months of the year. Since I am nearly 83 years old, my hands show wrinkles and scars, and in the summer months, a little dirt beneath my nails. That would be from working in the gardens for hours at a time, several days a week. My hands are in soil, moving over stones and rocks, pulling weeds, and touching painful thistle plants or weeds that form like a large net over a wide expanse of gravel.
Well, I won’t even get into discussing my knees and feet!
My hands may also have little cuts from accidents with knives, or cutters. And, they may often have stains on them, because I usually don’t work with gloves on. You must be able to feel the tiny roots and bulbs beneath the soil, in order to get the weeds taken out successfully.
Soon, the Black-Eyed Susan flowers will be showing off for all to enjoy!
Black-Eyed Susans in my Garden. Summer 2021.
Photo by Lynda McKinney Lambert
Photo by Lynda McKinney Lambert. 2021.
I’m ready this week do do some mulching in one of the long gardens that runs along the River Road fence. There are plants on both sides of that fence, and I maintain them both. I have a special pair of shoes that help me stay balanced as I walk on rocks or kneel down to reach stags and unwanted vines such as the deadly Morning Glory that corrupts every plant within reach of its skinny branches.
It must have been a morning Glory that sneaked into the group of flowers who were singing a song, in Alice in Wonderland! Imagine that! A dreadful and stealthy flower, such as a Morning Glory, sneaking in to destroy all the other lovely flowers. I believe it for I live it every day of the season.
As I consider my hands, I am taken back to changing diapers on my babies and caring for 5 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. These hands did whatever was needed at the time, for anyone who needed them. And these hands have soothed my family members during their final days of life. I am all about life, in my home, over the decades of making art projects, and my very physical work in gardens since early childhood. I speak life over my gardens as I am working in them, and during the time when I am making art. I speak life in my home, and I speak life in all of my writing projects.
I’ve never stopped to count them, but let’s just say, there are quite a few flower gardens that I tend. One covers long distances down a fence line, along River Road. I should add that this exceptionally long garden also has a companion garden on the other side of the fence! This side of the fence contains a variety of colorful flowers for the entire growing season.
Finally, the dramatic black-eyed Susan flowers and the hearty Mont auk Daisies, are next in line to show off their blossoms till late fall when low temperatures bring the daisy plants to an end. However, I must also say that the bright golden-yellow Caramel Coral Bells that are beautiful and colorful year-round. They will be a lovely array of color as the snow flies and the ice forms. Their leaves will remain bright and finally, in late spring, new leaves will merge in with the old leaves from last year, and soon, the entire cushion of stunning colors will be all new petals in the shape of Maple tree leaves. There are a number of other gardens, but this gives you a little bit of information about how I use my hands to care for my flower gardens.
One More Thing…it’s about art
Today, I climbed up the fourteen narrow steps to arrive in my painting studio.
While there, I was looking for paintings that I’ll deliver tomorrow for a juried arts show. My advice for anyone is: Never Quit! Keep on doing what you LOVE to do, and develop adaptive ways of working – but keep on working!
My hands know how to paint anything, through the years of practice, intense studies, and creative thoughts from the Creator, God. These are the hands that instinctively know how to make beauty come alive.
Here is the basic truth of what it is to be an artist!
When I meet an artist I’ve not seen in a long time, I can guarantee you what question they will have for me immediately! “What are you working on now?”
Work is a key word for understanding the mind of an artist. We are workers in our craft. Our work is what we do and it’s what we talk about all the time. Our work has priority in our conversations, our dreams, thoughts, and our daily activities. We work. We work with our hands, our body, our mind, our spirit, and our dreams. Most of our work in non-verbal. We got to a place where there are no words to distract us or interfere with the spiritual realm that we live in. Our work is always on our mind, and at the same time, it’s sacred. You will be surprised to learn that most artists are non-verbal.
_Scripture
The Garden of Eden (Genesis 2): The pristine paradise where God created Adam and Eve. It served as the place of perfect fellowship with God, but became the site of the Fall when mankind disobeyed and was subsequently expelled
Our loving Father, God, decided that all Life was created in the garden. God loves beauty and we are His cherished creations.
You can find gardens and plants at many of the stories in the Bible. Do a search and find out more this week.
The Bible is just bursting with examples of people over the ages who were called by God to be artist and artisans.
_Daily Action Plan
What is WORK for YOU?
What is the “Work of your hands?”
How do you define your own WORK?
What does your WORK look like to you?
©Lynda’s Journal of Blessings, 2026._
Let me know how God has shown Hiis faithfulness this week.
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” Lynda’s Prayer Garden”
Photo by Bob Lambert
FYI
Final Note:
What inspired me to begin writing blog posts about BLESSINGS?
Your comments and prayers inspire the best in me.
Let me know if this message is helpful to you.
Thank you for sharing my Sunday Blessings posts with others to encourage them and share the Love of Jesus.
©Lynda’s Journal of Blessings, 2026.
FYI: My Background:
Professor Lynda McKinney Lambert taught fine art and humanities at a Christian college in Western Pennsylvania, She was a tenured professor, an actively exhibiting artist, and a published author.
My academic Profession:
English Literature – Fina Art – Humanities.
My courses were taught on campus during the spring and fall semesters. In the summer, I taught in Salzburg, Austria for a month of travel and studies. One summer course was taught in Austria, with weekend trips to Venice, Italy, Various cities in Germany, and a variety of cities in Czech Republic.
I also taught in a spring semester course, on location in each year in Puerto Rico.
My passions in academia are poetry , art history, and fine art.
Finally, I author books and I create fine art in several mediums – Painting and Fiber Art.
After Sight Loss:
How I Found HOPEFULNESS in Unexpected Changes:
I discovered a new life after sudden sight loss. For the next two years, I learned to see the world and my place in it in an entirely new way. I completed training for Personal Adjustment to Blindness, It took two years of training and lots of challenging work to learn to read and write using adaptive technologies for the blind. Ad the months went by, God was showing me that my creative life would continue,, but in some new ways.
I began to write Divinely inspired life lessons
New experiences and God-directed Opportunities
New DISCOVERIES to share with the world
A NEW SEASON on the Narrow Path with Jesus.
365 Days – My ONE WORD for 2026
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Lynda’s Latest Books are now available on Amazon and all retail booksellers.
Interview with Lynda Listen Here!
Each Day Holds Some Small Joy – Collection of Haiku and Tanka nature poems.
You May Also Like:
Songs for the Pilgrimage…A Collection of Poems and short writings from journals and travels
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Songs for the Pilgrimage:
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©Lynda McKinney Lambert, 2025. All rights reserved.
Photo: Courtesy of Allauthor. Thank you!
Books illustrated were created by DLD Books.
Lynda has 6 published books.
Memoir, Poetry, Non-fiction.
More About Lynda
©Lynda’s Journal of Blessings, 2026.
Frwork-Out #770
Today, I feature One Word for this blessing: Work
June 28, 2026
BONUS: Additional Thought_
The Gorilla Garden `Cart is often referred to as a Gorilla Cart.
For a gardener, like me, it’s like having a sports car in the garage. You fall in love with it at first sight.
This sophisticated cart is a heavy-duty, four-wheeled utility wagon designed to haul heavy loads like dirt, rocks, mulch, and plants around a yard. I handle heavy bags of soil and mulch, rocks, and stones, and always poison ivy. My Gorilla Cart serves me as a highly stable, easier-to-maneuver alternative to traditional single-wheel wheelbarrow. In past years, I made trips up and down the hillside to empty a large wheelbarrow that was heavier than I am., and tried to balance it on that one wheel as my load shifted left and right, and the weight of the cart sped forward as I held on for my life as we went down to the path through the woods. I survived, again, I thought. One more time, I managed to get that wheelbarrow emptied at the top of the old rock quarry. But there were moments, when it seemed like we both would be pulled over the edge of the cliff and drop down 50 feet into the rock quarry. Gardening is tough. And you must rise to the occasion and do what needs to be done that day.
I admit, I strut around on my gardening journey every day, with the Gorilla at my side. I’d like the neighbors to admire it, too.
’m in love with this garden cart.
Not only debris and layers of weeds, but there is also the continuous physical assault to the body of the gardener that requires a little break today.
Since I am the gardener, today’s break gives me more time for reading and writing. I mean, the work.