Last Weekend We Pulled Dandelions
Not from the beautiful orchard in the photo, but from the back yard, which had about as many growing there.
I’d guess that I pulled about 200-300 dandelions last weekend.
But when I was just starting, I lost heart very quickly.
It Was a Perfectionist’s Nightmare
You can never get a dandelion out completely, because they break off at the root.
But on top of that, there were hundreds of them. I can see why people resort to using poison. And I can see why my parents didn’t worry about them. “If it’s green, we’ll mow it” was their motto.
But this wasn’t my parent’s lawn, or even my own, it was my mother-in-law’s lawn, with whom we’ve been living for the past few months.
Like it or not, I knew it’s what I would be doing for much of the weekend. So I decided to try on liking it.
I Was Out in The Yard
I didn’t go write my thoughts on a piece of paper. I didn’t even use the four questions of The Work, though it was clear to me that my own thinking was what was stressful for me.
So I just started playing with the turnaround, “It’s not tedious.”
And in my informal way of doing inquiry with my hands in the dirt, I started seeing the other side of it.
Here’s Some of What I Found
Most of my days are spent working in front of a computer using my mind. In fact, I often complain to myself about the tension in my neck from straining at mental work.
Here I was outdoors, soaking up the sun, and doing mindless work. As I settled into the thought, my heart opened to it. This “tedious” work was actually a welcome change to my computer work. It gave my thinking mind a break.
Then I Looked at the Sheer Numbers of Dandelions
That was a big part of the stress. I felt like no matter how hard I worked, there was no way to get the job done faster. After an hour, I felt like I had hardly put a dent in the job.
But the turnaround, “It’s not tedious,” became true for me when I stopped looking at the huge numbers ahead of me. And just focused on the motions of my arms, and the one dandelion I was working on.
I actually got into a kind of a zone when I did this. Swing the arm, push down the weeder, twist, swing back and release. It became like meditation. And I allowed my accomplishing, driven mind to take a welcome break.
The turnaround, “It’s not tedious,” was truer for me once I allowed myself to go there.
Have a great weekend,
Todd
“The truth is that you really love the job you think you hate. Except for your beliefs, it’s the job for you. How do I know? It’s the one you have!” — Byron Katie, Question Your Thinking, Change the World
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