Elfin magic

I live in the basement apartment of a house, which isn't as much of a cave as it sounds. The family that live upstairs - well I was going to say they're so busy their feet don't touch the floor but I can tell you, living in their basement, that their feet most certainly touch the floor. However, they do not have the impetus for gardening and I have always been happiest in the garden, so I've been out there weeding and pulling up rampant mint roots like pulling up cables that go on and on. Today they gave me money and told me to spend it on flowering plants to put in the spaces where the weeds used to be, so I spent all of it very merrily and will spend some of tomorrow planting.
It's a peculiar thing to be unemployed (or only slightly employed in my case). It's uncommonly tiring to spend the whole day picturing yourself in this place or that, this role or that, and to, as Gregg Levoy puts it, "go after meaning with a pitchfork," trying to rapidly discern - two words that should never go together. It also takes a whole heap of effort Not To Worry. Hence gardening. Away from the internet and phone, away from rushing and self-promoting and over-thinking and hyphens in general.
The other day I read this in Levoy:
We do much damage by not being patient with our own evolution, which by design and necessity luxuriates in an abundance of time and plot twists. We communicate to our own souls that we don't have faith in them, in their intimacy with the creative force of life. We sneak downstairs in the middle of the night to see if elves are sewing things up.
First of all, of course, there's the surface meaning to this. To be patient. But when I read this, I remembered the story of the Elves and the Shoemaker. The very first thing I wanted to be when I was little was a shoemaker because of this story. It only just struck me as I was typing out the quote that this is still what I want to be. Not literally, but I love the idea of being in the background, doing things, fixing and mending things for others while they sleep worriedly, to make their lives easier. Ah a little clarity goes a long way.
PS I also used to (and still do) go all wide-eyed for Bagpuss. They mend things! It still makes me tear up, I can't help it. (See part 2, 3m)