Who would've thought that mowing the lawn could yield so many life lessons.
Life lesson #1 : you can't mow every single little nook and cranny of the garden, if you try you'll go mad attempting to fit a huge propeller protected by a massive round steel guard into tiny right angles and 10cm circular spaces of long wavy show-offy grass. I kept envisioning a tiny little mower on a stick with a changeable head, like those sanders you see on informercials. OCD dream come true. Now that night has fallen and I am sitting here at the kitchen table having eaten my dinner, I still feel spiteful toward those grasses.
Life lesson #2 : doing work on and around the land is severely satisfying. It was so sunny today and all the birds were out. I saw a Kereru fly over head to the neighbour's Puriri tree. I saw a two Californian Quail cruising along in front of the bank, like little bowling pins. Once I'd finished mowing I looked out over my dominion, a little only child she-lord, and felt so satisfied by the neat rows of mown grass.
Life lesson #3 : if the mower weighs X and you way Y and and X's value happens to be a lot more than Y's, and Y tries to hang X over a hill to cut a bunch of long annoyingly wavy grass, the chances are Y will end up flying over X's handle bars, down into a dark bush and getting up to find a huge spider web wrapped around face. And then Y runs around screaming etc and X is lying with blades cutting furiously into thin air and Y's father Y comes out and says why are you down the bank with the mower ...... so yeah.
Life lesson #4 : getting hot is awesome because then you get to get cold again. Mowing in the sun, sweating, rolling down a hill, screaming, more mowing, followed by a swim and two ice cold beers. It's the yin yang effect baby; dynamic systems. The Korean's and Japanese have it so right with their bath houses, steam rooms, saunas and hot pools along side icy cold dipping pools.
Life lesson #5 : you get to smell the true essential smells of many of the plants in your garden when you mow because you accidentally (some times on purpose) mow over parts (or whole) of the plants and the heat of the mower and the hot summer air seems to diffuse these scents. piney, camphory, sweet, sagey etc.
Tomorrow I plan to help dad cut and move a fallen Lucitanica Pine for firewood ...... what deep / transcendental experiences await me?
No comments:
Post a Comment