Start Your Engines, Cool Your Jets

Today lawn mowers all over my neighborhood roared into action.  Mine did too, only it whirled instead of roared.  As I battled with random holes and bumps all over my lawn I was secretly wishing for a motorized way to cut the blades of grass.  It's not that I dislike the push mower we have, but sometimes I feel a little defeated by it and the tough-to-cut weeds that grow so much faster than the rest of the grass.  Imagine that, they grow like...weeds!

After unintentionally ramming my hip into the mower handle for the umpteenth time, I decided to take a momentary break and sit with Maise.  By this point she was completely wet from rolling around in the damp grass, but she was happy with the dew kisses all over her nose.  As I had been mowing I found an old tennis ball in a corner of the yard and threw that around for her for a bit, which she loved.  She hasn't quite mastered dropping the ball for me. Instead she drops herself to the ground, belly up for a rub, ball loosely held in her mouth which I can easily grab as she rights herself, eager for the next toss of the ball.  After a few throws I looked up to see a part in the clouds and, beyond that, the snow covered mountains with the sun shining on them.  Not an altogether uncommon scene here, but still beautiful.  Then I looked over and noticed new flowers blooming by the rosemary bush.  Purple and cream and small clusters on a stalk; I've never seen flowers like them before.  Because I had wandered over to check them out I was closer to the blooming Japanese Cherry Tree and all of a sudden was enveloped in the sweet fragrance of those blossoms.  They were shouting "Spring is here!  The sun is coming back after all!"  Then Maise came wagging over, nudging her smelly, wet head into my knee "reminding" me she was ready for some more attention.

After another toss of the ball, I went back to the mower and started pushing it again.  I was laughing to myself about Maise's antics and smiling at the sound of kids laughing and yelling to each other at the park one house over from mine.  If I had a motor on my mower I would have missed those sounds.  And I might have missed the parting of the clouds and the new, secret flowers, and the tree's spring time message.  Like any good 20-something, I obviously linked these thoughts to comparisons to my own life.  Had I pushed through life like I felt (sometimes still feel) I'm "supposed" to I would have missed a lot along the way.  There's a good chance I would have not applied to AmeriCorps and had this whole experience, which would have in turn kept so many joyful moments from happening in my life.  I'm sure regardless of where I would have been or what I would have been doing I would have found joyful and meaningful experiences, but I really wonder if they would have been as satisfying as these last seven months have been.

I only finished mowing 3/4 of the backyard; the cold that I've been fighting for a week brought along a bad cough which prevented me from finishing.  Maybe it'll get done tomorrow.  But for today at least my yard looks a little less like a jungle, and I was reminded to take time and revel in the beauty of the unknown flowers.