Non-Essential Worker

Non-Essential Workers 

I know you felt, it the pain in your chest 
When they told you go home put your feet up and rest
Or at least that’s how you internalized it in your mind 
As your world began to spin and you felt frozen in time 

You know who you are and you know what you do 
Somehow that phrase, essential worker, evoked a pain that lay deep down inside of you 
It made you think that you were no longer needed 
A word, unwanted uneed long ago seeded 

Into you mind and into your soul 
Telling you what to do, to be seen no matter what the toil 
Making you climb up ladders seen and unseen 
Making you smile hiding the pain as you sat with your team 

They told you what you do wasn’t essential, but I promise that’s not what they said 
That’s just a distortion of a long ago message you were feed
If you take out of context you’ll find yourself in a muck 
Moving hectically in circles like a swan or a duck 

What you do isn’t tied to who you are 
The work you do doesn’t make you a star
The work you do with your hands mind and heart 
Was deep inside of you from the beginning from the start

It may look different in this season when you can’t go about things the same way 
But maybe when things shift it’ll change how you encounter the day 
I see you and know the value in what you do 
But I see you and that’s just as important to 

I see you making lemonade out of the hand you’ve been dealt 
I see you all these years my edges you done kept 
Laid, curled, coiled, and neat 
While standing long,long hours on your swollen feet

I see you picking and packing in the assembly lines 
Digging and drilling deep down near the mines
I see you bending and picking food for the stores 
While you go home hungry behind closed doors

I see you caring for our kids here and there 
Because you really do care 
I see you making me sweat and get in shape 
Cause I stayed up late eating that chocolate cake 

I can’t imagine all the pain you might feel now that you can’t work 
The anxiety that’s driving you as you fear getting hurt 
I know we all have to work in order to survive 
But I hope our world would shift so it also allows us to thrive 

In such a way that our identity is not wrapped up in the titles we hold 
And we live out of the truth yet to behold 
It’s an idea so simply, but yet so true 
We are more than what we will do 

You’re essential to the people you’ve birthed 
You’re essential because you live upon this earth 
You’re essential to your loved ones near and far 
You’re essential no matter who you are

You’re essential because there is breathe in your lungs 
You’re essential because you are here among 
Masses of others who are in this storm too 
Different boats but I definitely see you 

You’re essential because you were formed 
And I know you’ll weather this here storm 
You’re essential when you retire and before you got your first job 
You’re essential even though you feel like you were thrown out by the mob 

It doesn’t mean you don’t matter that’s not what the order is all about 
There are other ways to preach the gospel and go on ahead and sing and shout 
We can gather in our homes like the disciples once did 
While coloring and building legos with our once distant and aloof kid 

You don’t need to prove to the world that you matter 
It’s only making the world sicker and we all need to get better 
And it’s hard I know this will all someday pass 
But I hope that in it all one lesson will last 

You matter regardless of your profession and what you do 
Beloved non-essential worker I justed wanted you to know I see you too

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