Rick Field is a 41-year-old bachelor, with degrees from Andover and Yale, who has decided to spend his life making pickles. The career change came after losing his job producing a National Public Radio program.

When Field announces his occupation at parties, the responses are interesting. "People will come up to me and say, 'So what do you do?' and I'll say, 'I'm a pickler,' and they'll say, 'But I mean, like, what do you do?' "

His foray into pickling began as a hobby, "immersing cucumbers, cauliflower, string beans and other vegetables in experimental brines infused with ingredients like rosemary, wasabi or curry. One of the inventions now in his line is a sliced bread-and-butter pickle called Bee 'n' Beez that derives its sweetness not from sugar but from coconut, dried cherries and ginger."

At the International Pickle Festival, Field has won best in show 10 times, the first was for his Windy City Wasabean, a string bean incubated in a brine flavored with soy and wasabi. One of his few failures came when he gave in to the demand for an especially fiery pickle. Field used hot peppers, including African bird's-eye chilies. "They were awful," he recalled, "and what I wound up with were two cases of paperweights."

Field's method of pickle creation involves heating the brine to 190 degrees. The brine is poured into a Mason jar with the vegetable. The jar is then put in a bath of hot water, sealed, and stored. The pickles are ready for consumption in a few weeks.

Giving his perspective on pickles, Field said, "The world is incredibly crazy and complicated, and at some point I started to feel as if there was something very satisfying about putting something in a jar, looking at it, closing it, tucking it away, watching it, giving it to someone and moving on."

This is not unlike what God calls us to do with our burdens, failures, and anxieties. Gather them up, give them to him, and move on.