Sunday, April 19, 2009

Stop and Smell the Fertilizer

So I smell like fertilizer because I just finished spreading a bag on my yard. It's a good smell; bright and somehow lively. I like yardwork because often, while I'm mowing or raking leaves, trimming trees, or cutting wood (I still have some logs to split from the chestnut), I don't think about anything. Not thinking about anything is preferable to thinking about something in my book, and I like anything that takes me to that kind of place. I like watching the granules drop through the spreader onto the grass (it never seems like enough), and I'm just some boring guy taking care of his yard, and that's okay. I think the key is resignation. I often feel like I'm in a hurry all the time during spring: so much so, I don't get a chance to enjoy it; and BOOM, the kids are graduated, it's summer, and my schedule has been completely cleared. It's kind of like stepping off a cliff.

Rushing... I was trying to blow my nose at a stoplight today and the light turned green before I could do it and I had to drive; it's this kind of feeling that causes stress. For me at least. Yardwork is a great cure for stress. That is, unless you feel like you have to do it. Like maybe because your neighbors are getting sick of your leaves, or weeds, or whatever. No, if you're doing it just because you want to... that's what I'm talking about. There's perhaps nothing quite so gratifying as mowing the yard. It's probably one of the dumbest chores human beings have invented, but if you can look past all that and just live in the moment of pushing the machine you'll see what I mean. Probably, you already know.