A Big Life: Encouragement for People in the Arts –
My brain twisted as I looked at the packages in the back of my car.
A lawn mower in the box. A weed wacker. Also, in the box.
Katie the thinker
I hate trying to figure out how to put things together. But the lawn was now a foot high. As I stood there contemplating the heavy parcels, my young neighbor Matt from across the street noticed me. He came over and lifted the boxes out of the car with ease. As I fumbled for my glasses and looked for the mower instructions, he attached the handle. Hooked the grass catcher bag onto its boxy wire frame.
Neither of us could figure out how to put it on the mower. These little foam rings were in the way.
Naturally, I felt guilty for engaging Matt’s time over something I could probably do myself by reading the manual, so I thanked him and excused him.
Long grass
The boxes sat in the garage for two weeks.
I didn’t want to do anything new. Learn anything. Last fall, I’d bought a house, traveled to Europe, gotten Covid and returned to an empty home in the States with a series of endless tasks. It took me a long time to get things in the house. Paint on the walls. Pictures up. And now to think about putting together that mower?
There had been enough new stuff in my life. I was tired. My mind was a twisted weave of strings attached to tangled thoughts. There was such resistance in me.
However, the lawn doesn’t care if a person is tired. Or if the loom within one’s head isn’t functioning. Finally, I faced the monster. Slogged into the garage. Brought the grass catcher bag into the house.
Together, we sat on my green yoga mat. Taking a breath, I found a YouTube video. This was to be a form of ritual meditation. A guided one. The video went so fast, I had to watch it three times.
But finally I got it.
A tranquil part of my garden
At once, the threads in my brain untangled into straight lines.
Why?
Because the bag was on the frame wrong. And those little foam pieces on the ends of the wire frame? They were the reason it would not hook onto the mower. They needed to be removed. Where was that in the instruction book? Nowhere. It wasn’t there. In the book or in the video. However, as soon as I had those off and the frame in the bag, I knew what to do. Hook that sucker on the mower and take care of that lawn.
Eventually.
A few weeks later I brought the weed wacker into the house.
Yup, weeks.
Weed Wacker Meditation
Understanding how to put this together required another lesson with the YouTube guru. Sitting on the floor with a relaxing ambient image on my Samsung tv and spa music on my Alexa, I found the right video. And yes. There were things to do which were not mentioned in the manual. Finally, the thing was in one piece. Now what? I’d never be able to lift this thing and use it. As I pondered this, I noticed a page in the manual which mentions a body strap which didn’t come with the machine. It was sold separately.
Great, I thought, feeling my mind twist closed again. Something else to track down, buy and then return. If I could even find it.
Then I realized I already had a strap. My yoga strap.
It really does take a lot of Beginner’s Mind to take care of the lawn.
If I ever get that far.
