(This initially appeared in my newsletter on August 26th, 2023. Sign up for HERE.)
“Whackk, whackk”, the noise boomed.
“What the hell was that?” I wondered, somewhat annoyed, but also happy for the distraction from a knotted paragraph. It was the door, duh, and someone was knocking. New in our rental home and having lived in an apartment for five years, I’d forgotten the rap of a knuckle against wood. The echo made it seem like the UPS guy was ramming the door with another piece of our online-ordered furniture.
I opened the door, into amazement, as an older and sweet appearing woman met eyes with me, saying, “Hello, I own the house next door, and my family owns your house, too. Just wanted to let you know a lawn company will be by this afternoon to quote the job!”
No lawn companies sent quotes. Because I got the job.
In our hello, we got to talking and the subject was raised, whereby I was confident, after a dusting off of my high-school mowing resume, I could mow both lawns. Two nights later, after three hours of push mowing, weed eating, and edging, I had invoiceable work.
Lately, my wife and I have been talking about work that makes you more of who you are outside work, contrasting against my medicine labor, which often detracted from who I was. Mowing is not replacing a hundredth of my medicine salary but for a few hours and a couple hundred bucks a month, it detracts nothing from who I am.
One yard at a time. One piece of furniture at a time. One day at a time. Being more myself, through work.
To living a work we love,
Ryan Fightmaster, MD
(P.S. Some conversations just mean more, and this conversation, almost a decade old, meant a lot. The last few days it kept replaying in my days, so I wanted to understand why. The result? This week’s article, The Secret Sauce of a Great Burger.)
