Sure, I get tired of it by August, but there is something deeply satisfying about making all those little blades of grass even. It appeals to me on several different levels.
Did you know that walking a lawnmower for an hour and forty-five minutes burns 621 calories?? That’s not a number to take lightly when one has just passed the forty-second year mark!
There is something very Zen-like in immersing yourself in one task and allowing your brain to take a break. Up and back. Up and back. Up and back. Kind of like meditation for your whole body.
There is a sense of lighthearted achievement when I’m done. To look at the neat and tidy lawn brings a sense of satisfaction that few other household chores can bring for me. If I’ve done a careful job, I can stand at the bathroom window overlooking the back yard and see the stripes.
Vacuuming the carpets just doesn’t have the stripe pay-off at the end!
A couple of years ago I mowed grass one whole summer. . .for money! It may have been the best job I ever had. I spent most of the summer in a sweaty Zen-state! One of the important lessons I learned that summer was the pride involved in making stripes in the grass. We would drive past the properties we had mowed just to check the stripes. When driving past properties that weren’t our accounts, we critiqued (mostly rudely!) the stripes of other lawn companies!
I remember Jeff excitedly calling my cell phone one afternoon when we were all out working. He just wanted to tell me that he had made a perfect checkerboard in a yard and wanted me to drive by it later!
There’s really only one secret to making good stripes – it’s walking a straight line. Not as easy as it sounds. When you walk, you tend to look down. When you mow, you tend to look at the front end of your mower. You judge to see if you’re following the last strip of mowed grass and that you’re not leaving any escapees behind.
When you do that, your stripes are going to look ocean waves on a summer afternoon.
The only way to mow is to look up. To look at where you want to go – not where you’ve been.
It’s like magic.
As soon as you change your focal point everything begins to fall into place. There aren’t any worries about AWOL blades of grass. And the stripes are straight and true.
Funny how quickly I forget that. I start my day or my week – hell, I even start mowing the lawn thinking about where I want to go. It isn’t long, however, until I’ve allowed people and attitudes to drag my vision down. Before I know it my fears and concerns have become center stage and I’m wandering along looking at my feet.
I’m learning though.
The only way to live is to look up. To look at where you want to go – not where you’ve been.
It’s like magic.
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