Recently, my lawn care company of 4 years fired me. And I took it hard.

It was something about an uneven lawn. (Ok, I do have a golden retriever that likes to dig,) And a horseshoe pitch. (Which has been there for 4 years.) I felt unfairly rejected, somehow unworthy, eventually insulted… and it percolated in my thoughts.

Never mind that my 92 year father of declining health was now living with me full time. That I was dealing with family members’ mental health issues. That I was in the final stages of a full scale musical production of 60 grade schoolers. That I was opening a second location for my business. It was the lawn care company that really got to me.

“Mom, you’ve got to let this go”, my 23 year old son told me. “Why do you care so much?”

It’s just an insensitive decision for a small supposedly community based business ….(there I go again.) “So, they don’t want to deal with our lawn anymore.” This from my husband. “Why do you care so much?

Why did I care so much?

Maybe because of all the other things going on in my life, this seemed like something that I could categorize as being on automatic pilot. Done and dusted as my online spinning instructor would say. Now, it was no longer done or dusted. It was just one more thing to deal with.

Just one more thing to deal with. There’s a theme if I ever saw one…and I am not alone in feeling this way. This has been a familiar refrain to all of us who have been around these last few years. There have been so many big things happening beyond our control , that we are sweating the small stuff. An attempt to control something within our power to do so or losing perspective? Either way, probably not the best use of the mental focus.

I’ve often said to my children, “Who said things were going to be easy?” I tell my theater kids, “Something is always going to go wrong but that’s often the best part of a show.” Maybe it’s time to take my own advice. Life is uncertain. Often messy. But if we take a moment to breathe and reflect, maybe we can recognize a good reason, an opportunity, or at the very least a moment of peace in an otherwise stressful situation. Who knows, maybe it could lead to the best part or our show.

There’s an old chinese proverb:

You can not prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head.
but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.

Modern interpretation. Stuff’s gonna happen. Don’t let it get to you.

Take a moment. Breathe. Reflect. Gain perspective. You got this.

As for my lawn. Is my nemesis just setting healthy boundaries? (Not the way to do it. Settle down. I’m working on it. )

“There are other lawn companies.” This, also from my husband. Oh, right. There are.

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