I’m a person who likes to have a system for things.  I run my business with schedules and checklists, I plan years in advance, and operate the day-to-day and year-to-year with as much efficiency as I can.  I do the same in my domestic life; I like an organised house. I’m soothed by having ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’.  I like to count things; steps, Sun Salutations, minutes on the elliptical, and I like to make every task as efficient as possible.

But, for some reason, I’ve decided to throw all that out the window when it comes to cutting the lawn.  In Canada, people take their lawns very seriously, and it seems that most people have a system for grass cutting.  There are the straight-liners, the checker-boarders, the diagonals, the circle-inners…but…and this was not at all a plan, I seem to like to cut my grass as randomly as possible.

When we moved back to Canada, I got an adorable little electric lawnmower, and I just roam around the lawn cutting here and there, willy-nilly, until eventually the whole thing (or what I can see) is cut.  I can imagine some of my neighbours shaking their heads in disbelief as I go diagonal for a bit, the back and forth along a line, and then do some circles.  I don’t know why this random grass-cutting brings me so much joy, but I suppose in a way it’s my little rebellion from my own self-imposed efficiency.  To have a place in my life where there is no plan, no system, no ‘proper’ outcome.  I just get out there with my little lawn mower and enjoy the sunshine, that amazing smell of freshly cut grass, and a little time-out from a systemized, organized, efficient life.  For me, this little habit has turned a chore into play, and I just can’t wait until the grass is long enough to trim again!

Is there something in your life that you like to get playful with?  Some little act of rebellion from an efficient world? I’d love to hear about it!

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