Weeding

I always have been able to dig deep and take on a huge task or job and finish it. I don’t get overwhelmed. I just make small goals then suddenly look up to discover the entire task is finished.

I have been lately thinking about how I have this skill and others around me do not. I have concluded that it began during the summers in Illinois.

We spent our lives wandering in the huge state park next to our house, running through the cornfields, biking into town, riding the neighbor’s horses or hanging out on a blanket with a book under a tree in the yard.

We lived on two acres and had over 200 trees on the property. We owned a riding lawn mower but it could not get close enough to the trees so the grass would grow tall around the trunks. Rather unsightly.

We also had a gravel driveway. A long driveway with a turn-around. Mom also had beautiful gardens around the foundation of the house.

During the summer, we would watch “I Love Lucy” at 8:30 then the TV was turned off. We had one chore to complete that day. There were many different chores, some were completed quickly but some more arduous. One job would be to hand cut around all the trees while another was to turn the dirt in the garden beds. But the most hated chore was to weed that long gravel driveway. The three of us would start at the top near the house then worked down towards the street. It would take all morning and included a lot of moaning and groaning.

How we managed it was to keep our heads down to the task at hand. Looking ahead was overwhelming. As we worked our way along, we would look backwards to see how much we had completed and were so pleased with how good it looked.

Finally, when we thought we could not possibly do anymore, we were finished.

The feeling of accomplishment was significant. It felt great. We were proud of our work.

I have used this all my life to do hated tasks only to discover the same wonderful feeling of accomplishment. Put my head down to do the work, check behind to see the progress while still moving forward towards a goal. It was a good life lesson.

It may even be one reason why I am able to live well with a bad diagnosis.