Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register
Examples: Monday, today, last week, Mar 26, 3/26/04
Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.

mindful raking

AMHAMH
edited October 2011 in General Banter
For those in North America, especially the northern half, it is fall! It smells so good, ahh. Colorado is beautiful but I also miss Michigan this time of year. It had so many colors on the trees and bushes. So i raked today, 5 large paper bags later i have half the yard done, and it is a small yard. This morning I watched as the leaves were blown off the trees until it was almost empty of all leaves and ready to be coated in snow and ice next. Just raking and breathing, i wonder about others ability to experience joy when they pass by and consider my neighborhood the ghetto and my house a s** hole. I just heard that today and I think I have more joy in this place than some have in mansions.

Comments

  • zombiegirlzombiegirl beating the drum of the lifeless in a dry wasteland Veteran
    i love fall. i had the pleasure of traveling back home to western MI this past weekend (i live in detroit now). it was truly beautiful, but sometimes i forget how lucky we are. sleeping bear dunes was voted by good morning america to be the most beautiful place in america this year. i was shocked at first when i heard it, but i suppose i might feel the same if i didn't grow up so close to the lakeshore. people always find other places to be more beautiful than what they're surrounded by, but it sounds like you've got the right idea. i think you can find beauty anywhere if you really look... :)
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    The dune habitat, I believe, is unique to michigan.
  • Telly03Telly03 Veteran
    edited October 2011
    You have much more room to find joy when your able to stop worrying about what others think.

    I do miss experiencing the changing of the seasons, we don't get that here in Hawaii. I get laughter sometimes when I say this because people think that I'm being sarcastic, but experiencing nature's changing brings you closer to it. I also learned that I tend to lose appreciation for the beauty of the islands if I don't have the opportunity to experience the occasional harshness that Winter can bring.
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    edited October 2011
    I love the beautiful sunny snowy white days in January. By February though I get tired of it all. And March is such a mess, though at the same time it is kinda hopeful towards the spring as Winter loses its hold on the land.
  • zombiegirlzombiegirl beating the drum of the lifeless in a dry wasteland Veteran
    You have much more room to find joy when your able to stop worrying about what others think.

    I do miss experiencing the changing of the seasons, we don't get that here in Hawaii. I get laughter sometimes when I say this because people think that I'm being sarcastic, but experiencing nature's changing brings you closer to it. I also learned that I tend to lose appreciation for the beauty of the islands if I don't have the opportunity to experience the occasional harshness that Winter can bring.
    one of my favorite times of the year is that first day when the snow has begun to melt and the bright new grass begins poking out. the contrast does keep one appreciative. :)
  • riverflowriverflow Veteran
    A Zen story I picked up in John Cage's book Silence:

    After a long and arduous journey a young Japanese man arrived deep in a forest where the teacher of his choice was living in a small house he had made. When the student arrived, the teacher was sweeping up fallen leaves. Greeting his master, the young man received no greeting in return. And to all his questions, there were no replies. Realizing there was nothing he could do to get the teacher’s attention, the student went to another part of the same forest and built himself a house. Years later, when he was sweeping up fallen leaves, he was enlightened. He dropped everything, ran through the forest to his teacher, and said, “Thank you.”
  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    I grew up in Michigan, but I live in southern Virginia now. We have loads of maples, sycamores, and oaks in my neighborhood, and I leave the leaves exactly where they fall (get it, leaves, fall?? Yuk yuk...). I see no need to clutter up the landfill with them. By spring they've biodegraded and fertilized my lawn for me.

    :)
  • AMHAMH
    Wow, I am not sure that is the goal my dad had when we spent so many saturday mornings not watching cartoons and instead raking, but it is funny how I was so upset back then and it is one of my favorite memories now.

    In Michigan I called March the mud season, It was common to get our boots sucked off in the mud.

    And I have a whole have written thing about what we learn from nature/camping/seasons i should work on and polish up.

Sign In or Register to comment.