You Always Feel Better After Cutting the Grass

This evening I cut the grass until the setting sun dictated that I needed to stop.  There's something about a freshly mown lawn that conjures a deep sense of peace within me.  In fact, if everyone on my street manages to have their grass cut at the same time, I find myself transported to a nearly euphoric state of OCD bliss.  All is right with the world.

Perhaps it's the smell of fresh clippings and gasoline, the perfect lines criss-crossing the yard, or the methodical sense of progress.  Perhaps it's how the drone of the engine drowns out all other distractions, including my own thoughts.


Tonight as I raced the sunset, I remembered one summer afternoon when I was twenty.  I was grappling with a complex young adult issue (a.k.a., boy troubles) and had hoped to speak with a friend.  She wasn't there when I arrived, so I got back in my car to return home.

On the trip back, I noticed an elderly woman cutting her grass.  Her gait was slow; her yard was large.  I still vividly can remember how a green leaf was stuck in her white hair, as if she just had a tussle with her apple tree.

I stopped, feeling slightly foolish, and asked if I could help.

That's how I met Anne Hahn, a woman in her 70's, a grandmother, a teacher, a missionary, and an incredible listener.  An hour later, I left her house with the subtle realization that I was the one who was helped by the offer to cut her grass. 

"You're breaking up with your boyfriend?  Well, cut the grass, then.  You always feel better after you cut the grass," she had told me. 

Fifteen years later, her words still ring true.

It's a simple rule of life: regardless of how good or bad you felt before, you always feel better after cutting the grass.
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Image compliments of Idiolector (flickr.com)

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6 comments

  1. What an amazing story! Talk about listening to God's inner promptings... I would have questioned myself and then convinced myself that it was crazy to stop and talk to her.


    I don't have grass to cut... but I have a garden to weed (does the same simple rule apply)?


    Wishing you a lovely week.
    xoxo

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  2. Oh, I think that having a garden to weed is certainly applicable!

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  3. Thanks, Lisa! The sweetness was all Anne's; she was a gift to me that day.

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  4. I think that when we care for widow's like that God beams down on us in a special way by blessing us the women's lives more than we'll ever give to them. Hubby and I had the same kind of experience and it was precious.

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  5. Amazing, isn't it, how we get more from giving?

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