Zen and the Art of Lawnmowing

Well not quite, but….

Have you ever noticed the meditative qualities of Mowing the Lawn.

It is a “place” you can go, a state of being where you can ponder life, the universe and everything – or anything. The regular back and forward, round and round paths you travel while mowing do not require a lot of focus from the brain – allowing it to wander away from that activity to where ever it would care to go. You can try listening to music using headphones/earpieces, but that just gets too frustrating trying to hear your favourite guitar solo over the relentless moaning of the mower – also, suddenly, violently pushing the mower aside and launching into your own air guitar mime of the afore mentioned solo creates more than a little confusion amongst the neighbours who thought you were just casually mowing the lawn.

But anyway, while pushing forward and back, round and round the mind can go places it would not normally go. One day I formulated a whole philosophy on the different stages of being. One day I wrote a whole song in my head. One day I worked out that dog droppings must be as dry as possible before being able to be cleared away by the mower. It is just a wonderful place for your head to be.