A Labor of Love

Have you ever noticed that you can feel when something was made with love?

There’s an energy to it.

Maybe it’s a meal someone made for you, a garden someone tends, a class someone teaches, or something made by hand. It isn’t only the finished product we experience. Somehow, a little of the person who created it comes through, too.

I was reminded of this recently while reading Journey to the Heart by Melody Beattie. Her September 1 reflection is called “Make It a Labor of Love,” and the idea stayed with me: we get to choose the energy we bring to the things we do.

I love that.

Because I think we sometimes forget that work can be more than something we have to finish.

It can be an offering.

When I sit down at my table to make jewelry, there are stones and cards and cord everywhere. I choose each stone. I thread each piece. I make it, sometimes take it apart, and make it again.

And while my hands are doing the work, there is always an intention behind it.

Courage. Love. Grace. Protection. Becoming.

I don’t know who will eventually wear the piece I’m holding. I don’t know what she’s going through or why a particular word might speak to her.

But I love knowing that something I made with my own hands may eventually become part of her story.

That’s the energy I want Amae Jewelry to carry.

And maybe that’s something worth thinking about this Labor Day weekend.

Whatever our work happens to be—raising a family, teaching a class, running a business, caring for someone, making something, growing something, or simply doing the ordinary tasks that make up a life—we get to decide what we put into it.

Not every day will feel inspired. Not every task will be something we love.

But whenever we can, perhaps we can bring a little more of ourselves to what we do.

A little more intention. A little more care. A little more love.

Because the things we put our hearts into have a way of carrying that love forward.

Make it a labor of love.

Love,
Traci