I used to hear my Grandmother say this, and my mother. "And the cobbler's children had no shoes." It was a hard thing for me to understand as a child. As time went by, I saw it for my self. Mechanic's cars falling apart. Carpenter's houses falling down. Doctors with constantly sick families. You get the picture. It seems to me to be a reality of some kind. Why do we neglect inward what we put forth most outward?
We can try to reason all of these out. The cobbler doesn't like to make shoes at home, he makes them at work all day. But is this it? Is it that we are so overwhelmed by our duties, that we don't want to do the basics for ourselves?
I believe that ultimately, you will not get more or less than you can handle as a workload in life, just the way karma works. No easy breaks, no hard breaks, just our own personal curriculum for life. If I am struck by a bus tomorrow, I admit I'd be bummed out, and may even die. But, ultimately I have to face being bummed out sooner or later, and I really have to face dieing sooner or later, so although untimely, it may be "fair game" in the long run. So find a way to do what you have to do, you have no other option.
Keep your ax sharp. This means take care of yourself. If you are not functional, mentally, physically, or emotionally, then you are not able to provide the things to others that you gave away to much of in the first place, leaving you depleted. A sharp ax cuts wood. A dull ax will cut wood too, but with much wasted work and wood. It is wiser to sit down and take to time to sit and sharpen your ax, than to beat on a tree with a dull one.
Don' let the things you do for others be the things you neglect to do for yourself.
Take the time,
Huckleberry Mathew Ingles
