Do the best you can

Around here, there are long lists made at this time of year.  We anticipate the warmer weather and have renewed energy for all the outdoor work that was put on hold at the end of last season, now feeling the resolve to tackle these forgotten projects with vigor.  Whitewashing the strawbale house walls, building a proper outdoor fireplace, trimming trees, redesigning the herb gardens, planting more fruit trees, garden expansions...and many more projects listed under categories of fixing, mending, building, preparing, digging, cleaning, reading, and reorganizing.  I am reminded about well-known words we like to quote around here, said by an inspirational fore-runner of the homesteading movement (Scott Nearing) - to "do the best you can, where you are, and be kind".  How important to tackle these lists of endless to-do's in a manner that is kind, calm, thoughtful, patient, honest, and imperfect - we simply do the best that we can in any given moment and do so with joy, learning what we can (especially from our mistakes), and that is enough.