Raking Leaves

I hate raking leaves. It's mindless work, and I just can't seem to make it fun. I was motivated to do it because a community liason officer in my township said there were enough leaves in the front of my house to cause problems in the drain systems.

The boy scouts used to do it as a money maker. I guess the 30 bags they filled at my house each year didn't constitute a fund raiser, but more of a pain in the rear. I paid them well. I'd love to see them do it again. Boys, if you're out there, please come see me in 2008.

As I am raking, I was trying to think of things to take my mind off of all the other activities I could be doing on a Saturday in December.

I begin thinking about the cycle of the leaves. Every year, they grow on trees and provide shade. Then, the fall comes, and they turn beautiful colors. When the daylight become scarce, they fall to the earth, turn brown, and we deal with them. If left to be, they actually break down to become compost for the earth. Somehow, society has managed to tell us to pick them up from the ground, landfill (or compost if you have a community who cares), and do it all from year to year.

So, I started thinking about the number of times I've seen this cycle. It's been a few, and it seems to come faster every year. Now, I'm thinking of other cycles in my life. Trash day seems to come every day (I know it's just once a week), it feels like I just graduated college, seems I just hired in my current job (I'm in my fifth year), on and on.

As I finished bagging the last of the leaves, I was left wondering about these cycles: Does life begin to slow down once again? Am I doing all that I can to live the cycled moments to their fullest? Am I missing the out of ordinary moments because I'm too caught in the "regular cycles" of life?

Wow, who knew so much could come from the scraping of the rake against the dormant green gold grass, gathering the offending vegitation?

Maybe this is why we rake leaves, to free our mind to get to the bigger picture...