Watering

**My apologies for posting this to both my pages today. I wrote this for my writing page, but I wanted to share it here, too, since…..well, everything. Writing this piece reminded me there are many, many ways, to make a better world. If you’re not a writer, just replace “writing” in this essay with whatever it is you are doing to make the world better.

Thanks for being here.

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Watering

Jenn was running late this morning so she asked me to water the front yard. Two months ago, in the early hope of spring, we planted clover seeds. The goal is to have a mow-free lawn. No pesticides and all that, but there will also be little colored blossoms everywhere when our lawn blooms.

We love the idea. There’s the environment to consider, because lawnmower engines are awful. Pesticides and fertilizers keep the grass looking good, but all that shit goes somewhere, and I’d rather it not be in my groundwater.

We also need more beauty in this world, and if we can make our lawn look good and not have to mow in 107 degree August?

Sign me the fuck up.

But it’s also a lot of work. We had to wait for a good rain. Then we had to spread the seeds by hand, and even though it’s a small yard, the seeds were even smaller. We spent over an hour one evening in early May, the warmth of summer coming but not quite here yet, our minds, for that hour anyway, not focusing on the current and continuing fall of America, but instead on the simple task of spreading seeds.

Afterward, Jenn watered the seeds to settle them into the ground. For a few days we watched the weather. The seeds have to be well-watered the first few days, so we took turns. Jenn took most of the turns, because she likes to see the slow steady progress. I tell her I see that every day when I’m writing, how a few words become a sentence and a few sentences become a paragraph. How a few weeks become a habit. How that habit becomes a lifetime. How you can look back at that lifetime like a well-grown lawn. Like a carefully-tended forest with strong, healthy trees.

The clover started showing in just a few days. But still we had to dig in the yard, tearing out clumps of bermuda grass and broadleaf plantain so the clover could spread out and take hold. I’d come up from writing in the morning and find Jenn out in the front yard. Late at night before bed she’d be out there watering.

So this morning I watered. 6:30 in the morning, squirrels already doing their squirrely shit. Birdsong at first light, the heavy heat of a Midwestern summer already seeping into the day. The houses in which we all live highlighted by the coming morning sun and my mind focused on the task at hand and not all the ways I can’t control the world. Just breathing and being, planting seeds for tomorrow then watering them into the earth, giving them a chance to grow.

When I finish I’ll come inside and write this essay, marvelling at this world we live in. This great big beautiful planet and all the wonderful people on it who are out there watering and seeding, sowing for the future.

Whether you’re writing today or taking a break for tomorrow, plant some seeds. Pour some water.

I love looking at your lawn.