As I sit out in my backyard typing this, enjoying probably one of the last of the warm days before the depth of the fall weather arrives, I look around and find myself admiring the job I just completed for the umpteenth time already this season, that of cleaning the leaves up.
On average, I’m usually out in the yard doing this task at least once a day during the fall timeframe. And while to most it may seem obsessive and unnecessary, including my partner and many of my neighbors, I find a sense of peace in doing it.
It is said through many of the Buddhist books I’ve read that one can mindful and at peace within while doing any of life’s daily routines. So why can’t that be applied while doing my day-to-day fall yard work. The reality is that it can, which is why I specifically do this task.
To be mindful of a chore is to focus solely on the actions surrounding doing it. Thus I find when I’m out in the yard sucking all those leaves up with my new Toro leaf vacuum, I do my best to focus only on that action and nothing more. In other words, all my constant frustrations and worries, especially with my health, take a back burner to watching as the machine pulls in one leaf after another.
It honestly helps a lot and in some ways is really just a form of meditation in itself. This can be true of any other chore in life as well such as cleaning the dishes, washing the windows, or dusting the house. Most of us though don’t do this at all. Instead, we allow our minds to race from one thing to the next during whatever we find ourselves doing in any given moment. And all that achieves is a restless, irritable, and discontent state of being.
So while most might find it rather comical that I clean up the leaves in the yard more than not during the fall season, I personally find great enjoyment in doing so because of the benefits it provides, benefits that aid in my healing, and benefits like many a compliment from a passerby.
Thus I’m feeling overly grateful to my Higher Power as I type these words right now because of the finished product I just completed and am now admiring once again in my yard. And while I know more leaves are only going to come down again soon enough, I’m at least finding a little serenity and joy in life doing something that most just seem to find a hassle in the Fall.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
