Hand On Garden Work

May 1st has come to mean all kinds of things; for Catholics it is the feast day of St. Joseph, the Worker; for undocumented immigrants it has become a day to march for freedom and rights; for many in the world it is day to celebrate working people. All these celebrations have one thing in common, hands-on work.

For me it meant a partly sunny day where I could finally go outside, plant the lily bulbs and work on the new front yard garden. When I work in the garden I do not wear gloves. I believe there is something about the soil on the skin that is life giving. After the last few days, with lots of shoveling and racking, I am reconsidering my custom. I do not mind the dirt embedded in my hands. It gives one the working person looking hands. However, the shoveling and raking has caused a blister on one hand. A blister looks good but stings when one washes it.

After offering a helping hand today to a friend by taking her to the store to shop, she offered me some hand sanitizer to clean my hands. Without much thought I rubbed it on my hands only to find the antibacterial cleanser stung my blister.

Maybe the lesson to be learned is that when working with soil keep the gloves off but when shoveling and raking put the gloves on. Or to put it another way, hands on the soil work is healthy, hands on a tools work needs gloves.

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