Saturday
May052007
yard work
Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 04:05PM
It should be obvious from the number of toes on my right foot, I’m not great at yard work. Still, that’s no excuse not to do it. Instead my excuses have been that my youngest daughter still doesn’t sleep very long through the night OR that I’ve been pulling all-nighters to finish the Caedmon’s record OR that I’d like to spend at least a few minutes with my wife every now and then, and oh, I should sleep sometime too. Oh yeah, and I’m on tour.
So anyway, the lawn. I’ve mowed the front once, so it’s not that kind of thing. It’s big stuff. There are two big piles of soggy, moldy carpet from when the basement flooded, I need to borrow or rent a trailer to get them moved. There are leaves six inches deep from the three big trees in our back yard. There’s a hill I refuse to mow because, um, read the first line of this post again. A few months ago we pulled up some ugly plants that were in the flower beds in front of our house. (They looked dead most of the year and had thorns. Who were the people who planted these?!?) So we now have two empty flower beds that will need some sort of, you know, plants. As you can see I have a LOT to do in the yard.
Or I SHOULD have a lot to do in the yard.
A week and a half ago I let some of the guys in my neighborhood/small group know that we were going through a bit of a rough time. I asked them to pray for me, and to be open to maybe, just maybe, helping me do a bit of yard work when I got back home with a few days off.
I was thinking I’d take a day or two to just spend with my family, since I haven’t had a proper day off in over six weeks. After that I’d spend four or five days doing all that lawn stuff, then start new projects and be back in the thick of work.
I flew home Thursday to be there just under a day. Driving home from the airport, I pulled around the corner and noticed our yard was mowed. “Well, that’s cool,� I thought, “must have been my cousin Dean.� He’s been known to very kindly do that from time to time. As I got to the driveway I noticed a bunch of edging had been done, too. And there was mulch in the flower beds. Around the flowers.
I parked the car and walked to the backyard. Again, the lawn was mowed, which must have been a hard feat considering the deep pile of leaves. But oh yeah, they were all gone, too. So was the soggy carpet.
I’ve gotten choked up every time I’ve thought about it. It looks amazing and wonderful, but that’s not why. Now I get to spend the time I’d allotted for the yard being with my family instead. And I don’t have to be embarrassed when I pull in the driveway or feel like a bad husband when I look out the back window.
I go to get my family on Tuesday. Three more days. I can make it that long. I can do the rest of the work that needs to be done before then so I don’t have stuff hanging over my shoulder when we reunite.
I’ll resist the urge to sum it all up any further. I’m not going to tell you what it means to me. You can imagine it. I don’t have the words to write it.
So anyway, the lawn. I’ve mowed the front once, so it’s not that kind of thing. It’s big stuff. There are two big piles of soggy, moldy carpet from when the basement flooded, I need to borrow or rent a trailer to get them moved. There are leaves six inches deep from the three big trees in our back yard. There’s a hill I refuse to mow because, um, read the first line of this post again. A few months ago we pulled up some ugly plants that were in the flower beds in front of our house. (They looked dead most of the year and had thorns. Who were the people who planted these?!?) So we now have two empty flower beds that will need some sort of, you know, plants. As you can see I have a LOT to do in the yard.
Or I SHOULD have a lot to do in the yard.
A week and a half ago I let some of the guys in my neighborhood/small group know that we were going through a bit of a rough time. I asked them to pray for me, and to be open to maybe, just maybe, helping me do a bit of yard work when I got back home with a few days off.
I was thinking I’d take a day or two to just spend with my family, since I haven’t had a proper day off in over six weeks. After that I’d spend four or five days doing all that lawn stuff, then start new projects and be back in the thick of work.
I flew home Thursday to be there just under a day. Driving home from the airport, I pulled around the corner and noticed our yard was mowed. “Well, that’s cool,� I thought, “must have been my cousin Dean.� He’s been known to very kindly do that from time to time. As I got to the driveway I noticed a bunch of edging had been done, too. And there was mulch in the flower beds. Around the flowers.
I parked the car and walked to the backyard. Again, the lawn was mowed, which must have been a hard feat considering the deep pile of leaves. But oh yeah, they were all gone, too. So was the soggy carpet.
I’ve gotten choked up every time I’ve thought about it. It looks amazing and wonderful, but that’s not why. Now I get to spend the time I’d allotted for the yard being with my family instead. And I don’t have to be embarrassed when I pull in the driveway or feel like a bad husband when I look out the back window.
I go to get my family on Tuesday. Three more days. I can make it that long. I can do the rest of the work that needs to be done before then so I don’t have stuff hanging over my shoulder when we reunite.
I’ll resist the urge to sum it all up any further. I’m not going to tell you what it means to me. You can imagine it. I don’t have the words to write it.
Reader Comments (8)
that's amazing. wow. good friends.
"The echoes of Kindness are truly endless"
Mother Teresa
It is a blessing to see love expressed in such ways. I pray you will love Christ more because of these caring friends.
very cool... I think you got a great small group that you belong to... obviously a lot of love going around.
Awesomeness. Praise God for brothers and sisters.
Number of toes? I missed something.
But yea, real friends like that are awesome. Everyone should have at least a few of them.
bro. that's awesome to hear. i love it when God reminds us that he's taking care of us through our friends. there are few things that i think are better than that.
that is truly what Christian brothers and sisters are supposed to do fo one another. I have been on the receiving end of these things from time to time and it is truly humbling. Just sit back and love the gift and the giver.