I love the smell of the leaves in the fall, and the feel of them crinkling under my feet.
They piled up over the top of the mower last week as I pushed it through the grass.
I sighed as the leaves fell to either side instead of staying underneath and turning into mulch as I had hoped.
So much for just mowing over them and not having to rake!
I was faced with a decision. Do I finish mowing and then rake what's left?
Or do I mow again, just to save myself from having to rake? (Disclaimer: I really don't enjoy raking).
On one hand, I get good exercise either way.
Mowing is less stressful on my back though...
But raking is more of an arm workout...
My mind was on overdrive, trying to figure out the right next move.
And to think that this is just one very small decision in the grand scheme of how many we make every day!
It's a constant flood of decisions. Small decisions, big decisions.
Decisions with minimal impact on our lives. Do I wear the red shirt or the blue shirt?
Decisions with significant impact. Should I get married, start a family, buy a house?
It's enough to exhaust even the strongest person.
The good news is that we are in control here.
Whatever we choose has to be the right thing for us, for our family, for our own lives.
No one else gets to tell us which decisions to make. As much as they may try to.
You may choose to mulch your leaves. Your neighbor may choose to rake them.
Both are good decisions.
I'm sure some people driving by my house last week were wondering why I was out there pushing my mower through piles of leaves. Some of them probably shook their heads at me and judged my process.
But they don't know what's inside my head. They didn't know I was trying to save myself a step. That I was hoping the mower would mulch them all on the first pass through.
We can't possibly know what drives the decisions other people make.
So we should just stop trying to do that.
It's hard, I know. We are fighting years of instinctual human behavior.
By nature, human beings are born to judge other people. To want to impose their opinions and decisions on others.
We think everyone should do things just like we do. What kind of a world would that be though?
I ended up raking the leaves that didn't get mulched instead of mowing over them again.
My son came out and helped me. We had some quality bonding time that I wouldn't have gotten had the leaves been mulched on the first pass through.
I was grateful for that - and for the decision that I made.
Be grateful for your decisions, too.
Whether you mulch or you rake or some combination of the two. It's your decision.
Do what works for you, what makes you proud, what moves you forward in life.
That's all that matters.
And don't forget to be grateful along the way.
I know I am.
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