You know that thing you hate doing? Can you just not do it anymore? That thing that you dread. The thing you worry about and stress over. The thing that every time you do it, something goes wrong, and you end up mad. What if you found a way to never have to do it again?
I stopped mowing my yard, and I’m telling you, it’s fabulous. I should have stopped mowing my yard 20 years ago.
So why didn’t I? Well, I’m perfectly capable of mowing my yard. I know how (thanks to my grandpa!), and I’m physically able. I don’t come from people who pay other people to do things they are perfectly capable of doing themselves.
But I moved recently, and my mowing equipment was all crap, so I left it all with the old house. I thought it would be best to just buy new at the new house. Except I kept putting it off. I’d look at mowers, and I wouldn’t buy them. I did the math on how much it would cost me to buy a mower, a weed eater, a gas can, string, etc… And then the time came that I had to either mow or get out of the yard.
What finally did it for me was the thought that someday, when I least expect it, this mower I didn’t even want to buy…was going to break. And that, that is what robs me of joy.
I kind of like to mow, given the perfect situation. On a beautiful day with plenty of time on my hands and all the equipment working properly. I enjoy mowing. But that perfect situation doesn’t happen.
What does happen is I’m too tired, or I worked too late and now it’s dark, or it’s 100 degrees outside, or I’m out of gas, or the mower won’t start. And then I lose my joy.
So I decided to pay somebody to mow my yard. And he does it. And I <3 him.
He just shows up and does it. He mows, he weed eats, he takes this blower thing and blows the grass off the sidewalk. Sometimes he does this before I get home from work. Sometimes he does it before I get out of bed in the morning. And I never have to think about it. It just gets done.
Which leaves me time to put things like this in my yard. Because this? It brings me joy.