This month's installment of Teri Maxwell's Mom's Corners raised some insightful questions.  If you had been hired to do the work you do (as mother, teacher, home keeper etc) would you be up for a raise or on probation?  You set your alarm to get up and begin preparing when you have an early morning appointment.  Do you feel as compelled to rise and follow your routine when you are "just" teaching at home that day? (referring to weekdays of course)  Would we surf the internet or visit on message boards if we were working at a doctor's office?  Do we feel it's ok for staff at the pharmacy, grocery store, or Post Office to snap at us or to make us feel stupid for our questions or need for assistance?  And yet, how often we do we keep a double standard for ourselves at home? 

The points she makes apply to all who are self-employed or work from home, but are especially convicting to those whose vocation is the making of "home" and the mentoring of small humans.  Home should be a refuge, a place of rest and respite – even for us!  However, the greater portion of our time at home is necessarily required to work diligently to reach our goals.  Home care, child care, health care, meal planning and preparing, paperwork, instruction, character formation, gardening, and relationship building make significant demands on our time and our demeanor.  It is a daunting task to get it all in, especially since some aspects of the work can take years before seeing measurable results.  In our era it is not always acknowledged that this is even valuable, legitimate work to begin with.  This attitude can creep into our own hearts and we can lose motivation to maintain the same level of effort we might exert if there was an evaluation and paycheck hanging in the balance.  

When reading from St Ignatius' daily meditations this morning I came across a line which convicted me even more:

"…for it is not sufficient to do our part well; it must be done more than well."

Following that was a related aspiration from his Spiritual Exercises:

"I will carefully consider how, on the day of judgement, I would wish to have discharged my office or duty; and the way that I would wish to have done it then, I shall do now." 

His words were not directed to women specifically, but to all. We all have a role to fulfill, life's work to do.  It is tempting to assure ourselves that it is done well enough, when in fact we know we may not be as fully committed as we could be.   

If we were observing our own lives as a bystander would our words and actions make us pleased or make us cringe?  If we are human, and honest, we will probably say some of both.  Perhaps though, keeping that visual in mind will lead to less cringing.