Got My Mow-jo Workin'

I don't know exactly how it happened, but the time I spend mowing my yard in the spring, summer and fall has become a sort of fountain of inspiration for me. It started several years ago, and now I really look forward to seeing what will pop into my head while I'm shuffling along behind the mower, sweating like a marathon runner.

I hated mowing when I was a kid, partly because I've always had hay fever and would finish each session sneezing and with swollen, red and itchy eyes. Nowadays I wear a paper mask when I mow, which mostly eliminates the sneezing and red eyes.

For a while, I wore a Walkman when I mowed, and listened to rock and roll cranked up loud enough to hear over the noise of the mower. But, a few years ago, I decided to visit an audiologist to find out if there was anything I could do about my tinnitus, the constant high pitched whining sound I hear 24 hours a day. He tested my hearing and told me I had lost some of my ability to hear higher frequencies, so I stopped wearing the Walkman and started wearing foam earplugs when I mow.

I live in New Mexico where the sun shines most of the time, so I always wear sunglasses when I mow. Oh, and I never forget the gardening gloves for my hands.

So, there I am, nestled into my walking cocoon, sheltered from the pollen, noise, glare and the vibration of the mower. How could inspiration NOT make an appearance?

As I was saying, the first time inspiration visited was a few years ago. At the time, I was working on writing a novel, something I do from time to time as a hobby. Since I didn't have music to listen to while mowing anymore, I started thinking about the characters in my novel and trying to figure out different problems with the plot. I found that I could work things out much better when I was doing something physical, like mowing, than simply sitting at a desk and concentrating on the situation.

Before long, I was using my mowing time to think about all sorts of creative problems, including painting, writing and website creation. And the time spent NOT concentrating, but just letting my imagination flow, had a positive impact on the quality of whatever it was I was working on.

I suppose my discovery is nothing new. The virtues of hard work have long been extolled by thinkers and philosophers as being good for the soul. But, for those of us who work in occupations where we have to use our brains more than our hands, sometimes we need periods of physical activity to reap the benefits of work. It lets our brains disengage just enough to let our thoughts move into different areas. And, those areas sometimes hold gems just waiting to be discovered.