WORK

clover in flower bed - honest - there are flowers in there! 

My yard is a disaster!! 3 years of neglect is a bit much. I had a surgery in July 2009 - there goes that year!! I had another surgery July 2010 - write off another year!

This year the problem is motivation - desire.
What is all this effort really accomplishing?

I see July 2011 coming and I haven't gotten completely around the yard yet. SO MUCH TO DO!!!! Today I tackled about 10 feet of the back flower bed.  I can only work for a short bit and haven't much stamina back.  Grass and Irises seem to have a major attraction to each other - the Irises grow towards the grass and the grass - well let's just say that if there is grass anywhere on the planet I am sure it will find a way to get into my Irises.

I had a pile of rocks once - quite unsightly!

Moses Lake should be called Moses Rock. Every time I touch a shovel I find a new boulder.  My kids think I am like a water dowser - but I use a shovel (instead of a forked stick) to find rocks. And I wonder if my garden grows more than vegetables.

Most  rocks pictured here came out of my garden and flower beds. I admit I found a basketball sized round white rock that followed me home one day but mostly ...

What do you do with so many rocks?
I get creative.  I, of course, means 'us' and 'we' and it was not a royal 'we' either - I had a lot of help and the process seems to be ongoing.  Every time I think I am rid of my stash more rocks seem to appear.

By moving one rock at a time I can make my rocks useful, functional and even decorative.
Notice the rock path along the front.

I pile them into walls.
The walls terrace our sloping lot.

I make edges with them.

property/flower bed edge -  rocks define edge

I lay them under the gravel when I need a driveway - first the fist sized, then the egg sized, then smaller stuff, and top it all off with a shallow layer of gravel. We only needed a couple of pickup loads of gravel.

My pile was the left overs from driveway construction - plus we dug out a new bit of garden about 8'x12'.

I began, I sorted, I gave up, I started again, I ignored naysayers, I sorted in new ways and places, I cleared and measured a small area and then started to place the rocks one at a time until patterns in my mind emerged into a walkway and fire pit that used many sizes and shapes of rocks.

that is a thin skin of gravel over a rock foundation on this driveway

I worked.

Sometimes a grandchild could be bribed to help and a few times my spouse hung about but mostly I just spent a small amount of time each day doing something to make it happen - anything - even standing looking at it and thinking!

Several times I decided I was foolish and it was of no use. That didn't get rid of the unsightly rock pile however. The pile was there a few seasons. And rocks are one thing but weeds and grass started to grow- how does grass get into the middle of the driveway anyway?

And then someone threw a brick on the pile,
and then a board and ...
I could see where that was going!
Not going to happen in my yard, I decided.

So I began to think and I started again.
I changed my mind several times.
But I hadn't actually done anything yet.

Then I started and changed my mind again.
I had wasted a lot of effort.
A couple months passed.

Then I made THE decision.  Since I couldn't get rid of the rocks any other way I could make them useful.  We had a small fire pit - just an old rusting wheel rim. The rock pile was against it on the driveway side. The grass area was badly worn and the heat when we burned things made it worse.  Only a bit of stubble sprouted for several feet out. I decided the rocks might as well lay there in an organized fashion.

I made a genuine commitment to myself -
and then I kept it. I worked every day -
even if it was cold, or wet,
even when I was tired,
even when I felt crummy,
even when I was sure I was silly,
especially when I felt I was wasting my time.

As I clean and weed the yard and edge the beds I feel like I did when I started and quit so many times on that rock pile.  Cleaning that 10' or so of flower bed was daunting today - it seemed impossible.  I think impossible might just be discouragement or despair in action - or rather lack of action. It took time. It took effort.  There are about 50 more feet to clean! It seems overwhelming and I have barely started!   My legs hurt, my back aches - wah, wah, wah - I experience that whether I work or not (so I might as well work), whether I complain or not (and that is not fun to hear - even from myself), and you can't believe how hard it is to just put on my shoes and find my gloves etc!

But 10' is clean and planted.

I cut myself some slack too - I come blog or look at Facebook, talk on the phone a while or take a nap,  have a snack or go shopping,  -  and then I get back to work!

Work is doing what may not seem fun or easy.  It may be misunderstood.  It may even be a time of learning - changing and especially decision making.  Work is doing something persistently and consistently - diligently and often repetitively. It feels good just to do it for the sake of doing something - choosing to act!

Our 5 year old granddaughter calls every so often.
 She always asks for her Papa.
He is usually 'at work'.

She asks why.  I tell her he gets the money to pay for food and for gas in our car so we can drive to see her.  She seems satisfied with that.  He works. Good things come from work.  That is OK for her.  It is OK for me too. Thanks Papa.  I like having a house.  I like good food.  I especially like to visit family.

In March while listening to a CES fireside I heard L. Tom Perry say,
"Prayer is a form of work ..."

His statement caught my mind with force
and completely engaged my attention.
Prayer is a form of work???
I don't remember ever hearing it put quite that way.

And then he continued ...
"and is an appointed means
for obtaining the highest of all blessings."

I was astounded.
I wrote it on my bathroom mirror.
(I will tell you about the mirror another day.)

Prayer - like moving rocks?
Prayer - like digging out weeds?
(Did you ever let clover go to seed in a flower bed?)

Prayer - like separating grass roots from Irises rhizomes?
Prayer - like vacuuming? or dishes? or laundry?
Prayer - like a job? like every day? for hours?

When his talk was available I listened again so that I could be sure I was quoting it correctly. I was astonished again and felt a tiny bit foolish when I found a footnote next to his statement that indicated it came from the Bible Dictionary [page 753] in the King James LDS Bible.  I wonder greatly that I have never understood this.  Surely I have read it - probably more than once.

Perhaps studying my scriptures is another bit of 'work'.

Hmmm ...

I'll 'work' on that -
along with a few other things
AND prayer!!