My beloved toys with returning to work. I say: if you really want to, choose to do something you love. Do something that appeals to you, which will make you happy. Don’t go yearning for a job that demands a tiring commute, or a workplace in which you will daily have to battle racial discrimination. I’d rather we live on one salary, than return to live with those stresses again. If you want to work, let it be in a field that brings you pleasure.
If I had my time again, perhaps I would pursue that onetime dream of being a gardener. Years ago, that was dismissed by everyone around me as an unrealistic pipe-dream. We were encouraged to pursue desk-based professions instead, convinced that only these careers could sustain us. But of course now we see that wasn’t true, for everywhere we see the gardener turning up for work in his smart Toyota Hilux, enjoying comfortable lives.
I had a series of dreams in my youth, each of them dismissed by those around me. Before the short-lived dream of being a gardener, I had my heart set on being a farmer. This rejected because it’s a hard life. Later, I’d contemplate training as an architect, but to this proposal I would be told: you’re no good at maths. Later, graphic design, to which the response would be: you didn’t take art. On and on like this, forever discouraged from pursuing whatever passion caught my fancy.
I hope my beloved settles on something that will bring her pleasure. She has many talents, mashallah. She just has to discover how she wants to employ them. Perhaps if she’s successful, I’ll quit my job and work for her. Anything is possible in the fullness of time.
Last modified: 3 October 2022
