On being outside

Backyard

I just came back inside from mowing the back yard.  This morning as I was having my cup of tea and going through my usual routine of opening the blinds and opening the front door for Butters to look outdoors the morning birdsong was interrupted by the hum of lawn mowers being started across the fields and backyards in our neighborhood.  I smiled at the sound and at the sunshine that came to greet us creating a spring in every one's step. Prior to yesterday we have had about a week of non-stop rain.

After I painted a few strokes on my sunshine painting and on another small painting I started I decided it was time for me to head outdoors and join the chorus.  As I was mowing and smelling honeysuckle that is still in bloom and an unusual cotton candy like smell coming from through the trees from the neighbors yard (what was that smell) I thought "I love mowing".  Then I thought how my Dad would laugh at this as he always complains that I never mowed when I lived there.  In between stopping to pull a weed from a flower bed I was passing or stopping and rescuing a little hoppy toad, I still continued to think of how I love mowing and pondered where had this desire come from.  I have long wanted a yard full of clover for the bees and so we would not have to mow the yard.  Having a lawn means sowing the lawn every season and fertilizing it and weeding it so it seems contradictory to want a lawn and to want all the little creatures in my yard safe too. 

There is an allure to the mowing though, to creating straight or even curved lines and seeing the beautiful pattern that you are creating.  There is an awareness of each inch of your space as you go back and forth across the lawn looking at how much a tree you planted has filled out or spotting the season's first bursting bud from the day lilly or saving a hoppy toad and taking the moment to smile and thank the hoppy toad for visiting.  And this morning I was reminded of childhood as well.  There was something sentimental about having the door open and hearing the start of those mowers that took me all they way back to pig tails and halter tops.

I may have a different post about mowing when the mercury hits 85 plus and the humidity matches it, but today I feel joyful just being outside and feeling the sun against my skin as I mow one careful row after another.

What is bringing you joy today?