To we Homesteaders, The Homestead is many different things;  our vocation, our school, our home, our passion, our dream, our hobby, our ethos.

Some of us do it 24/7 while others, particularly The Bean Counter, work on cramming all their grand schemes and big dreams into the weekend. When you are also perpetually on-call for your paid employment, getting a fair run at dreaming and scheming Homestead-style sometimes seems like Mission Impossible.

An ideal almost as impossible as getting our version of “The Man” to comprehend the touchy-feely stuff their PR folk say they deeply believe in as an employer is actually, well, worth believing in. Ah well, that’s a rant for another day; Suffice to say sometimes the whole work/play balance gets a little skewed for our main income earner and the world starts looking a little grey.

Then, like these things have a habit of doing, right when he was sinking without trace into the Murk of Blah, this little anecdote fell into our realm (thanks to teachhub.com for sharing this at just the right time).

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mason jar and the 2 beers.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mason jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.The students laughed…

‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.. The sand is everything else—the small stuff.

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.

Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked. The beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers with a friend.’

Okay, so it’s a little cheesy, but sometimes a touch of fromage is the only thing that can haul you from the Blahhy Murk and in this case it worked a treat.

Well enough to reflect in his choice of Sage Words this week which were served up with home-grown (in the Kingdom of Melton (West)) bacon and maple syrup pinwheels of which there is no recorded of evidence…but take it from us, they were good enough to raise a smile to rival