Since I was a boy, yard work has been a source of both complaint
and satisfaction. If I owed my parents money, you can bet that my outstanding
debt was converted into trees/shrubs that needed to be moved, brush that needed
clearing, drains that needed to be dug, or the like. The work grew into a labor
of love, as it became a source of pride. I landscaped neighbors’ houses,
maintained baseball fields and parks, but no project has ever belonged to me- until this past weekend.
When I bought my house, I recognized that my fjord of a
backyard was a major eyesore that could be transformed into an attractive
selling feature with a good bit of sweat and planning.
With Afsi’s urging, and
a healthy shove by both of our mothers, Labor Day 2013 was set aside to be a
Labor Weekend in Georgia.
In my recent studies of Buddhism, (see our plans to
Thailand!), I’ve run across the following in the Pali Canon:
Admirable
friendship, admirable companionship, admirable camaraderie is actually the
whole of the holy life. When a monk has admirable people as friends,
companions, and comrades, he can be expected to develop and pursue the noble eightfold path.
You could say that I took a step toward Enlightenment this
weekend. I could not be more thankful for the outpouring of volunteers that
gave up their weekend in favor of the break-breaking task at hand. I had an Engineer
to design the retaining walls, a Pilot leveling the blocks, a Genius digging
out the slope, an Executive moving dirt, a Banker and a Beauty stacking blocks,
a Salesman wheelbarrow-ing blocks, and a fully staffed kitchen preparing every meal
for the crew.
Collectively, my backyard amassed the IQ of the Manhattan Project, all sweating toward the goal of
turning my cliffside estate into a relaxing, terraced retreat. As a result, in 3 days, we were able to accomplish:
-with limited dirt and poor weather.
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| Additional dirt to fill in between the walls. |
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| STILL not enough dirt. |
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| Holding back the soil until I can complete filling in between the walls. |
-K
