I came home from work last night with a blog post idea floating around in my head.  This isn’t it, I hope to retrieve it later and have it show up on this site at some point.  No, I walked in thinking I would just start in on the computer but the dishes called out, and a load of laundry too.  Once those things were no longer disturbing my sensibilities, I didn’t have it in me to write that other post.

This post is about the sense of duty that drove me to work on the chores first.  Is it a gene, a cluster of brain cells, or something else entirely?  Why do some people have this sense practically oozing out of their pores and others wouldn’t recognize duty if their existence depended upon it?  And then there are the majority of people who have just enough to keep them from scampering off to Tahiti and instead make a life which includes a considerable dose of responsibility.

I believe that I’ve written about this before.  And I will certainly write about it again.  Dad was big on fulfilling duty first.  His words and actions showed us daily.  I wish that I had more of this trait when it comes to keeping my house in good shape, but I have plenty of ways that I relentlessly apply my energy to duty first.

“Let’s have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”
~ Abraham Lincoln
(public domain image)

A sense of duty is a very helpful thing to develop and maintain – I am thankful to have it.  However, I have spent the last few years seeking to balance this duty with other important things too.  Time with people that mean something to me, opportunity to gain new experience, pleasant pastimes.

Now that duty has been met, I need to get my head back into the right frame for that other post.  First I will wish for you a nice balance of duty and leisure in your weekend.

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Tagged: Life, Perspective, Purpose, Responsibility, Working