My Art Every Day Month creation took a surprising twist; I created a bunch of leaf piles! I am proud of my leaf-free lawn (okay, there are a few leaves, but at least you can see the green grass for the first time in weeks). I had no clue when I bought my home two years ago that the beautiful trees on my property would so generously deposit their leaves every Autumn, and create an inordinate amount of work for a single mom, just trying to stay on top of her lovely home.
My mom called this morning, admonishing me for raking by myself. “Hire someone to blow the leaves off your lawn,” she warned. “It’s too much for you to do alone.” Of course, always the rebel daughter, those couldn’t have been sweeter words of encouragement. I began to rake the lawn on Friday. By Sunday, the part that I raked was just about fully covered over with a new fall of leaves. I tackled the corner closest to the lawn’s edge yesterday, feeling accomplished to have completed a section, albeit a small one.
Today, I raked the rest of the front lawn. As I neared the far edge of the lawn, a pile of twigs and branches caught my attention. I had been stacking all the falling limbs in that pile for two years. It was quite ugly and large. And this became my new project. I began breaking logs into pieces no larger than two feet, great for kindling and firewood. I moved the pile to a stack of firewood near the house. I shlepped the larger branches behind my bushes.
By now, I was exhausted. I had hit the lawn-work ‘wall’, and could have easily quit. But I had set out to do a job, and was hellbent on finishing.
The macho non-quitter in me kept moving on, although blisters and splinters made the job even more challenging. What a triumphant feeling to finish, as I raked those last leaves into the giant piles surrounding the front of my house.
I entered the house, sweating, arms shaking, and ravenous, and inhaled my tuna sandwich. As I calmed down, a feeling of bliss enveloped me. I accomplished a big job, defied my mom’s expectations for what I could accomplish on my own, and saved a lot of money to boot. The added bonus was the great workout and the pumping adrenaline and feel-good hormones coursing through my veins.
Today’s life lesson, and the theme for my week, is perseverance. It is easy to give up when things become painful. We work hard, and sometimes we are just too tired to take the next step. When we push through that last leg of exhaustion and complete what we set out to accomplish, bliss is often the reward for our effort. Whenever I reach any obstacles this week, all I need for inspiration is to recall my hard work and the subsequent bliss that followed.
What is your work challenge? Can you recall a moment of bliss as you worked through a tough task?
