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About this quote

What does it mean?
Gardening requires physical work that leaves you visibly marked by the earth.
In plain terms
You should look like you worked in the dirt.
What can you take from it?
Value tangible results of physical labor.

Where it applies

  • gardening
  • manual work
  • outdoor life

Putting it to work

  • get outside
  • work with hands
  • embrace mess

Questions to consider

  • What does your work leave on you?
  • How do you measure a good day?

Another view

Cleanliness is also a valid value.

More from Margaret Atwood

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  2. Men are not to be told anything they might find too painful; the secret depths of human nature, the sordid physicalities, might overwhelm or damage them. For i…

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  3. If I were going to convert to any religion I would probably choose Catholicism because it at least has female saints and the Virgin Mary.

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