This happened years ago. It took ten years to happen the first time and now it has been forty-one years more. They add up, but its the same story retold as it will be for others in their time. It’s the same story.
I lived on a farm in Iowa and it took me ten years to come a place where suddenly I had all I needed without going to town to buy anything I needed. Sounds simple, but ten years is a long time and I lived seven miles from town. So that meant for a long time, all those first ten years, I had to go into town to buy a nail or a piece of wood or a part for the car or anything, but that day I remember I needed to make a repair and I went into my shed and there I found everything I needed and I didn’t go into town and it struck me as a great moment, a liberation, a consummation devoutly to be wished that suddenly and it only took me ten years I had everything I needed.
It happened again today. I build a partition wall for my dogs so I could use one half the garage they have dominated for the last year and I could open the overhead door without letting them loose or risking their loss. They have the whole back yard, but that’s another story. I wanted a structure that would allow them easy life and allow me to gain access to where my tools and my odds and ends are placed and today I completed the job and I didn’t have to go into any store or wait in any line or spend any money. I had all the lumber and hardware and paint and tools and brushes I needed. I did the job. The dogs are happy. I’m happy. The job is done.
So the moral of the story is given time and conservation which means simple respect for what you do and the materials you do it with, there comes a time when you receive a bonus, a dividend on your investment, interest on the living you’ve done and it’s like going to the bank and making a withdrawal of something you saved and didn’t know exactly how you’d need it when you made the deposit, but need it now and there it is ready and waiting for your service. It’s like cashing in and it feels really good, no matter how you accomplish the goal, no matter what you’re doing. You didn’t throw away the scraps. You didn’t waste anything. It’s a form of faith and as with any faith it pays off.
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