The other day a friend said to me, “You know, no matter how hard you work, it’s never done.”

I’ve been thinking about this and I think she might be right.

No matter how long you spend in the garden or yard, it’s never done.

No matter how many hours you spend cleaning your house, there is always something else that could be done.

No matter how much time you invest in your children, the teaching and guidance they need is never done.

I wonder just why this is? Have we set our sights too high or do we demand too much of ourselves? Or is society the demanding party, demanding too much from us?

My Grandma had twelve children and when her daughters became mothers and complained about all the work she said, “Just so there’s a path to the bathroom and the kitchen, that’s enough to worry about.”

Grandma was a hard worker but she was also a very wise woman so I know that when she said something it was a truth. (Who knew you could ever challenge Grandma-wisdom anyway?).

In answer to statements of they would laugh if I wore that or they wouldn’t do that she would say, “Who are these they people that set the standard by which you act.” One story behind her knowing about the they people is that one time one of her boys (my uncle) came home and was staggering a little and it was very late at night, and when she asked what was going on he proclaimed that they made him drink to much. He thought this was funny but the next night when he left to go to find his friends, he found that his Mother was there at the bar already, loudly asking just who were the they people that made her son drink too much.” No one stepped up to answer the question but from then on Grandma always referred to the friends of her children and grand-children as the they people.

But I digress—back to never being done. Are we setting up standards for ourselves and perhaps for others that are over the top? Unattainable? Not reasonable? Or are they even practical?

So what if you haven’t weeded a perfect flower bed? Daffodils don’t mind a Horsetail weed or two standing next to them. It only adds interest to the garden. And, so what if that hedge isn’t perfectly manicured, will the hedge police come and levy fines at the gardener of the house? And those happy Dandelions add nice color to the yard until you get time to do a proper mowing.

So I say to my friend that thinks “work is never done” — it could be. Just give yourself a break. You are the only one that expects all this perfection and don’t you know that the work will wait? So take a beak and get back to the task when you feel like it, if ever.

We all know life is too short to spend it worrying so like the song — “Don’t worry. Be Happy” — all that work can just wait. And have a good day. (Now don’t you feel better with this permission from one of the they people?)

Comments? Send them to Donna Lee Anderson at welltoldtales@aol.com.