LIFE LESSONS

Mowing The Lawn

The spiritual and psychological benefits of doing it yourself

Photo by author.

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I mow my own lawn, which surprises people. To be honest, it surprises me that it surprises them. I suppose it’s meant as a compliment. Surely, I’m too important to be mowing my own lawn. Isn’t that why we tolerate the existence of immigrants in the first place? To do the difficult work we don’t want to do? Why am I degrading myself by stooping so far below my social station?

In my peer group, I’m probably one of the few I know who can claim to mow their own lawn, as most would tell you they have neither the time nor the inclination to do it themselves. For many years, I had a landscaping service that took care of it all for me as well. I would come home from a long work week or business travel, and magically, the lawn would be freshly mowed, edged, trimmed, and blown — ready for me to enjoy. I paid handsomely for the privilege and for a time, it was worth every penny. My time was worth more to me than it cost to have someone else perform this mundane task.

Then one day, suddenly, it wasn’t.

It was the year before COVID; sometime in the fall of the previous year. I was looking at what I had spent to have someone…