I’ve built dry-stack rock retaining walls for ten years. On one level,
it’s just work for pay.

On another level, rock walls leave something visible from my labors, which
is far different than sermons on Sunday gone on Monday. I like the challenge
of taking a pile of jumbled boulders and rocks and skillfully stacking them
into a wall that 1) stays standing while retaining soil on the high side, and
2) look attractive. Form follows function.

But the essential activity I’m doing comes from my meeting with the Blind
Saint of Vrindivan, India. Swami answered my question about how to effect change
in my society (I was distressed about the Vietnamese War at the time). He said
any action I might take would be caught in the reciprocal realm of cause and
effect. I might protest, but it might result in even more war. He advised I
devote myself in hard physical labor for the general betterment of people or
society and take whatever reward came from it. If I did this, I would feel rested
at night and sleep deep. By giving this way I would emit “an invisible
perfume of unlimited effect.” That would create unlimited peace.

Indeed, when I shower after a day of hard physical labor, I watch the dirt
go down the drain, gone. It is refreshing. My meditations are deeper. Plus,
my body and mind feel better for having worked. Perhaps there is the perfume.

In any case, I like the hard labor as a work-out, and I like to leave behind
something that looks good, something that could last hundreds of years. I also
like working in service, though it is also good for me to earn money for having
done it.

So, while I welcome straight forward work for pay, I prefer doing hard physical
work as service. Labor serves a higher calling.

Click a link below to see a picture of my work.

http://www.earthlyreligion.com/images/rock/DSC00891.jpg

http://www.earthlyreligion.com/images/rock/DSC00892.jpg

http://www.earthlyreligion.com/images/rock/robssteps.jpg

http://www.earthlyreligion.com/images/rock/steveswall.jpg

http://www.earthlyreligion.com/images/rock/merrickcircle.jpg