# Hustle

*Know where you're going; Be where you are*

By [Existential Liturgies](https://paragraph.com/@existentialliturgies) · 2025-06-22

poetry, existentialism, hustle, pause, honey, honeybee, bees, garden, lawn, clover

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We watched a honey bee bustle about on a clover with fervent ambition  
She was a young one  
Small

She plunged her head so deep in the petals that the smallest of flowers almost swallowed her up  
Pulsing thorax, kicking legs, and periodically buzzing wings led me to think it was an especially delightful nectar deposit

Worth it

I walk through this yard every day  
Getting the kids to school  
Getting myself to work  
Picking up groceries  
Going on a walk  
Cutting the grass  
Garbage day

There is a virility to the hustle  
My lungs feel bigger and my back feels straighter  
In a world of founders and vibe coders and startups and investors it feels good to be productive

Accomplished

But to watch this young bee delight in the nectars of her prize flower, I had to slow down

I followed my one year old daughter around the yard listening to her say "wow" fifty thousand times in a row  
Every rock, stick, pebble and patch of dirt is a new galaxy to her

I was thinking about goals and to-dos and budgets and timelines  
Half awake

But then we saw this bee  
The first of the season--of life, for my daughter  
She crouched, hushed, and looked at me before turning her large eyes back to this spectacle of joy

A hard day's work feels good.  
But what is it for?

  

Know where you're going  
Be where you are  
A billion galaxies  
A single star

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*Originally published on [Existential Liturgies](https://paragraph.com/@existentialliturgies/hustle)*