The first invoice I sent under my own name made me more nervous than my wedding had.

When the payment arrived, I printed the confirmation and pinned it above my desk.

I thought of Walter, writing numbers in his green ledger.

He had never treated the work of managing a household as worthless.

He knew precisely how much labor it required.

At the bottom of an old notebook he had once written: People who depend on your effort sometimes resent being reminded that it is effort.

I copied the sentence onto a card and placed it beside my monitor.