It isn’t easy to take a day off of farm work while the team heads out for the gardens, but I’m drowning in office work. If I don’t swim for the surface soon, I’ll start inhaling water beneath waves of Capricorn anxiety. I kick toward the light beyond the surface, swimming through to-do lists and emails, gaining buoyancy as I rise up from the deep. Meanwhile, the farm team gives the terrace an impressive makeover. I mean, the before and after pictures don’t even do it justice. At the end of the day, I survey the transformed garden, a satisfying, tangible exhibit of a job well done. I congratulate and thank everyone for their hard work. My own mental swim for the surface left me only with a to-do list with lines through it, which just wasn’t quite as gratifying as looking at the clean lines of the garden, but both had to be done.

~Joy