THIS
IS MY HEAVEN
As I was working in our back yard this morning I was
as close to the earth as I might be. I had protected my skin from bugs and sun
with appropriate substances.
I was wearing skinny protective elastic plastic
gloves to protect my hands, knee guards, and my favorite sun protective shirt.
An old pair of running shoes and my Tilley hat. The sun was barely up, but a
little later than the day before.
The humidity was lower than usual and the
temperature was in the low 70’s. I knew I only had a few hours until it would
be too hot to be working outside. I knew it would be above 105 degrees by early
afternoon.
I had finished planting all the pieces of sod that I
had. I had my eyes on the row of Knockout Roses to the right, northwest of the
back yard, but not completely. My vision was blocked by a population of nut
sedge grass, crab grass, and lespedeza. It had invaded all that to my right in
the yard including the roses and lantana.
There was a single zinnia plant that had been slow
to recover from last year. I think it most likely came from a seed. It had a
pretty violet-like bloom that turned out to be too heavy for the slim stalk
holding it up. It was a little sad for me to discover that it was lying face
down on the soil outside the line of bricks helping me to constrain the
centipede grass.
Most of the time with my nose to the ground I remembered
my kinship with the spiders, worms, grubs, and other creatures whose level I
was searching to attain.
It would probably have been more economical to have
just killed all the old grass with its hodge podge of crab grass, goose grass,
lespedeza, and several other varieties of botanical growth that seem to be working
intimately to retain as much of many spots in what they obviously consider
their own real estate.
Several times I realized that I was having much more
fun, learning much more about my connections with the universe, than I would
have, had I killed everything possible in that thousand square feet of what is only
legally mine, cleaned it up, and replanted it all with fresh centipede sod.
My main point here is that I want to keep
myself healthy. I want to contribute to helping my family and friends be as healthy as
possible.
I like that in the past couple of years I have
discovered in greater depth and breadth the fruits of humility.
I have many to thank. If I start naming them all you
would perhaps become as bored as winners of Oscars often do. I will just thank
them quietly to myself.
