Sandra Heska King

daring to open doors

  • Home
  • About
  • DISCLOSURES
    • Amazon Affiliate
    • Book Reviews
  • Published
  • Contact
  • Blog
    • Commit Poetry
    • Dared

Self-Propelled–Or Not

August 11, 2010 By Sandra Heska King

I wrote a great blog post in my head. While I mowed the lawn last week. But did I write it down right away?

Uh no.

Take note: Take notes.

Anyway. We had to take the rider to the hospital. The farm machinery place. Where I saw two boxer-type dogs sitting oh so straight together in the passenger seat of a pickup, heads twin trained on the store door.

Take note: Take camera.

Everywhere.

Anyway. Dear husband left me to go to Dallas for three days and put me in charge of the lawn. We call it a lawn. But really, it’s just a field that we mow to look like a lawn. Except when we let it go so long, it looks more like the field it is. Maybe we could call it a yard.

It wasn’t totally our fault.

I mean I know I promised to take on more chores when I quit work. But then I got caught up in this writing thing.

And Dennis had this big test to study for. And then it rained. And then the rider died. Which ended up costing us $40 to find out the battery needed to be charged–even though our tester whatchamacallit showed otherwise.

So I had to do it. Mow, that is. And put some muscle into it. With the supposedly self-propelled thing that left me puffing and palpitating. If I let it go any longer, even until the rider came home, it would soon like like the side yard. Which we finally let go last year (or was it the year before?), and now we can barely walk through it to visit the neighbor’s sheep.

So now we only mow a couple acres instead of five.

It took me three days to do the front.

Start. Stop. Because I kept letting go of the wrong handle.

Start. Stall. Clean out the clogged grass.

Start. Stop. Get drink.

Start. Stop. Walk a mile (seemed like it) to get the gas can.

Had I been whipping around on the rider, I might have chewed up the vole and little frog, both of which managed to scamper and jump to safety.

(I still remember when my daughter ran over a bunny nest . She does, too. It was years before she mowed again. Trauma all around.)

So I managed to make some progress. As long as I kept at it. A little at a time. And felt the satisfaction of standing back and looking back to see where I had been and what I had accomplished.

And this thought struck me.

Life gets out of control sometimes. For lots of reasons. And sometimes we just gotta let some things go. And tackle what’s left. Even if we have to start and stop. Take a break. With an eye on the goal.

Because life is not a free ride. We need to walk it out. Propelled by something bigger than self.

Share this:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest

Filed Under: stories and reflections

Comments

  1. HisFireFly says

    August 11, 2010 at 5:59 pm

    I just came back in after riding my mower around and around with it’s wide 54″ cut. And I thank the Lord for the time it saves. Yet even with that.. there is much we are letting go wild this year because between weather and breakdowns things got out of hand.

    This igves me more time to walk it out, and you so wisely said:

    “We need to walk it out. Propelled by something bigger than self.”

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 10:41 pm

      Oh, a 54-inch cut. I’d love tooling around on one of those. Except I’d probably run into the trees.

  2. katdish says

    August 11, 2010 at 7:43 pm

    We live on 2 acres. I used to love/hate mowing the grass. It took me two hours minimum to mow, but boy, did it give me time to think. I wasn’t writing then. Now, we have a yard guy. He does a much better job than I ever did, but sometimes I wonder what great stuff I could come up with while riding on that mower.

    What’s a vole?

    Also? Once I let the grass get too high and I hear this loud THUNK, THUNK, THUNK! Oh yeah…5 feet of snake in 3 pieces. That was pretty cool.

    Great post and great analogy.

    (The previous comment was brought to you in part by my raging ADD.)

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 10:42 pm

      Ewww. Ewww. Ewww.

  3. Lyla Lindquist says

    August 11, 2010 at 8:13 pm

    Between your post and Katdish’s comment I’m remembering junior high, when my family moved from Minneapolis to the middle of Nowhere, South Dakota. They thought a little farm would be fun. Every day — rain, shine or raining grasshoppers — we each went out and mowed for one hour. With the John Deere push mower that worked fine on our little suburban lawn. Not so much on 20 acres.

    I’m not sure we ever got all the way through it before the neighbor came and baled the chest high “lawn.”

    And frogs shriek when they get skinned by a John Deere. If you were wondering.

    Great post. I’m glad I have that Someone “bigger than self.” My stuff gets out of control too often.

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 10:57 pm

      Oh dear. You triggered a memory from high school biology when we were supposed to “pith” frogs to observe muscles twitch in salt water or something. What was the purpose of that? Anyway, I got in trouble because I cried when my frog shrieked.

  4. Melissa Brotherton says

    August 11, 2010 at 9:25 pm

    Loved this picture. This is exactly how God speaks to me. Thanks for sharing this. 🙂

    • Sandra says

      August 11, 2010 at 10:58 pm

      He’s in the small things, too. 🙂 Thanks for coming by.

  5. A Simple Country Girl says

    August 12, 2010 at 12:40 am

    Sandra, just toss several seed packets of wild flowers into the “lawn” and turn on your sprinkler. Viola! A field of flowers that never needs mowing. Or do like us, turn your horses out to eat it down and then forget that lawns need watering in hot climates and burn it to a crisp in under one week. No mowing for this girl.

    Kathy, a vole is a nasty little mole-like varmint that my son and husband used to catch with this big stab-em-through vole/mole trap (I have photos if you are interested).

    Anyone with a vole problem, of course if you live in town and have a side job of emptying ashtrays, you can stuff cigarette butts into their holes and drive them into the neighbor’s yard (someone did this to us when we lived in Smalltown, America). Or you can cram one end of the garden hose into a hole, turn it on full-force and watch for voles riding the waves as water shoots out of their many tunnels.

    Is it okay to close with my normal closing when I just talked about ridding the world of varmints?

    Blessings.

    • Sandra says

      August 14, 2010 at 7:52 am

      Just toss the packets? Hmmm. Hubby figured he’d have to have it “scratched up” first. That seemed like too much work. 😉

  6. deidra says

    August 12, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    I’m not allowed to mow the lawn. I don’t do it “right.” And that’s just fine with me because I’ve been in the kitchen when the great lawn mower coughed up a rabbit or two, and when the leaf blower spewed out a baby mouse or three. Gross. And that’s all I have to say about that.

    The analogy rocks. What a great ending!

    • Sandra says

      August 14, 2010 at 7:53 am

      Ewww.

      I don’t know why that just reminded me of the two baby mice that fell out of the garage rafters onto my garage sale money table while I was making change.

  7. Cheryl Smith says

    August 13, 2010 at 3:12 pm

    Love this post, the words, phrasing, pauses and stops. And the ending – just great!

    It reminds me of the summer after I bought my first, post-divorce house and had to mow the lawn. For the first time. In the Virginia heat.

    When all was said and done, I laid on the only cool place I could find – the tile floor around the fireplace in the living room. After I finally caught my breath and the red left my face, I called my ex and thanked him for all the times he cut the grass while we were married.

    • Sandra says

      August 14, 2010 at 7:55 am

      Oh, Cheryl. You called and thanked your ex. That is so sweet.

  8. Duane Scott says

    August 14, 2010 at 3:01 pm

    Oh, I loved this… Okay, now I’m wondering… why did I miss this post? I read everything you write! I just don’t know why not this one?

    Anyway, it rocks. And now I’m off to do some mowing. 🙂

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Meet Sandra

I’m Sandra, a camera-toting, recovering doer who’s learning to be. still. Read more…

Get updates from the stillness by email

Your personal information is safe and will never be shared.

Archives

Categories

Instagram Inspiration

sandraheskaking

Happy first day of fall from my backyard to yours. Happy first day of fall from my backyard to yours.
Just another backyard photo… Just another backyard photo…
From my backyard tonight. From my backyard tonight.
Just another sunset. Just another sunset.
“I would like people to remember of me, how inex “I would like people to remember of me, how inexhaustible was her mindfulness.” ~ Mary Oliver in “ A Little Ado About This and That.”
Current situation. Current situation.
“This spark of life that wavest wings of gold” “This spark of life that wavest wings of gold” ~ Thomas Wentworth Higginson in “Ode to a Butterfly”
🦋
We pulled all the milkweed because it just could not support all the caterpillars. They were eating it bare and most of them died because they ran out of food. This one butterfly found this one lone volunteer.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright futur "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." ~ E.B. White (as quoted on today's page in my Franklin Planner)
"May you experience each day as a sacred gift wove "May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder." ~ John O'Donohue in "For Presence" from To Bless the Space Between Us
🌴
Tri-colored heron stalking breakfast in my backyard.
“. . neighbor’s tree hangs heavy with mangoes “. .  neighbor’s tree hangs heavy with mangoes. They are moving in a week. They say a family from Belarus bought the house. I hope they don’t care much for mangoes.”
**
“Beautiful Sweet Things” at https://sandraheskaking.substack.com/
"People do not grow old. When they cease to grow t "People do not grow old. When they cease to grow they become old.” ~ Emerson

It's been a while since I've written anything on my blog. Like 3 years. But I just wrote my first post on Substack. Come see?

https://sandraheskaking.substack.com/p/ten-years-ten-things
Spent a couple hours this morning with friends fro Spent a couple hours this morning with friends from @spanishriverchurch picking up beach trash. Little bits of colored and clear plastic, big bits of plastic, bottle caps, broken glass, strings, ropes, straws, socks, fast food containers, paper, cigarette holders and filters—and a couple unmentionables. Took extra care around the turtle nests. Last count was about 70 pounds, but there were also some bigger things like an abandoned chair and a plastic tent. And a big piece of burlap or something with a fishing lure and giant hook attached. D found a Macy’s gift card that he almost tossed in his bucket. But we brought it home to check the balance—$24.60! We should be able to turn that into something useful for someone. 😊
H Already dead, I am living my afterlife here in t H
Already dead, I am
living my afterlife
here
in the form of a human.
~ Xueyan from Time Peels All to Original White

Thanks to @tspoetry for introducing me to this beautiful collection via an Every Day Poems selection.
The cats attacked the window all night. The dog wo The cats attacked the window all night. The dog woofed all night. This morning we discovered the would-be burglar imprisoned between the screen and the glass on our bedroom slider. 

When I stepped out to release it (no bail), I was surprised by this brief bit of backyard beauty.
For most of us, knowledge of our world comes large For most of us, knowledge of our world comes largely through sight, yet we look about with such unseeing eyes that we are partially blind. One way to open your eyes to unnoticed beauty is to ask yourself, "What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?" ~ Rachel Carson in The Sense of Wonder
#prayformsu #spartanstrong #spartannurse #michigan #prayformsu #spartanstrong #spartannurse #michiganstateuniversity
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faith Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. ~ Psalm 136:1
A tale of two iguanas... I did not see the iguana A tale of two iguanas... I did not see the iguana in the background until I downloaded the photos. That, I believe, is the one that got caught in one of the openings in the neighbor's chain link fence. We tried in several (safe) ways to dislodge it without luck and could think of no other option but to leave it. Somehow it apparently dislodged itself. We also believe this is the pair that was getting into another neighbor's garden. We haven't seen either one since the last cold snap, so we are wondering if they survived. 
🌱
Thinking some may have tumbled from their perches last night. Pretty sure it will be raining iguanas tonight since we are under a frost advisory. It's cold. And windy.
Just sing... sing a song... Singing our way into Just sing... sing a song... 

Singing our way into the weekend.
"We don't just see. We learn to see." ~ Russ Ramse "We don't just see. We learn to see." ~ Russ Ramsey in Rembrandt is in the Wind
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Get the Mug

Embrace the life you have t s poetry mug

Privacy Policy

Full privacy policy is available HERE.

I Read Light

TSP-Red button

bibledude-net



Sponsor a Child

Join the Compassion Blogger Network

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2023 Sandra Heska King · Site by The Willingham Enterprise, LLC on the Genesis Framework by StudioPress · Log in