Justin DuJardin |O_o| |x_X| |-_-| |o_O|

Getting Back To My Roots

This spring has been a great opportunity to get out into my yard and do some much needed maintenance.   In the past I would have hired someone to come out and take care of these things for me, but this year I have been consciously seeking out home maintenance activities that I can find enjoyment in.

It has been almost two months now, and I’ve been making regular visits to my yard, working away bit by bit, stopping when my yard waste container is full.   As I’ve been weeding, dead-heading, raking, and trimming, I have realized something quite amazing.  Each time I take on work in the yard, I feel a strange sense of calm come over me, and I unintentionally end up losing hours in it.  Put simply, I love it.

This is somewhat uncharacteristic of me, so I have been meditating on why it is that I find myself so feeling so fulfilled while working in the yard.  Certainly it could just be that I’m getting older and more mature, but I find such explanations to be unsatisfying.  The truth that I have come to realize is that it gives me an opportunity to view life from a completely different perspective, one of plants and bugs.

While working in the yard all of my concerns in life seem less pressing.  To be clear, they do not go away as if being ignored in favor of distracting myself with something else, but rather they simply seem to loosen their grip on me.   I can spend hours quietly contemplating my life, and all the things I normally would; but given the continually surprising perspective on life that I run into, it’s much harder to get bogged down under the apparent weight of it all.

Working in my yard I am able to connect with life in ways that I rarely get to otherwise.  I now better understand why so many great minds find comfort in gardening.  What a fantastic venue for quiet meditation and exercise.