Fall Chore: Keep Your Yard Clean!

Photo of fall leaves — The beauty of Fall / Photo BYSMILEUS | ISTOCK

FALL BANE

Britannica site informs us that Autumn is called fall season since the trees shed their leaves and flowers during this season to survive the upcoming harsh cold winters. Tropical climates nurture deciduous plants which lose their leaves to conserve water or to better survive dry weather conditions and regrow new foliage during the next suitable growing season. Dropping of foliage gives the plant a fresh start in the spring, and the nutrients from the decaying leaves are recycled to help grow the next leafy generation.

Piling of leaves, however, is a bane in Fall and many a garden or yard may risk looking untidy due it. Leaf fall carries with it the risk of ungainly smell due to rotting, which affects the lawn or garden if you were nurturing one. Thus, an adjunct task and necessary action in this season, or what we can call fall chore, is sweeping of leaves in order to keep your yard clean!

NECESSARY TASK

Clearing of fall leaves is important, say garden experts, since removing them is essential to the health of the lawn or even the ground. Paths, patios and decked areas, become unsightly – and potentially a slippery hazard when covered by leaves. A thick layer of leaves on the yard prevents it from absorbing air, nutrients, and sunlight, thus depriving the lawn’s root system, causing it to develop disease, lead to flooding, or even to attracting pests. As the leaves rot, mold and fungus can fester and harm the lawn. In addition, the weight of the layer of leaves could prevent new grass from emerging the following spring. Thus, for spring to give rise to good shoots and growth, raking of lawn as well as disposing or storing of leaves for compost becomes mandatory!

Accumulation of leaves tend to smother and damage small, low-lying and delicate plants, and so, clearing them is of prime importance. In many areas, disposing of them along with your regular household waste isn’t an option. Some gardeners resort to raking them into autumn bonfires, but these can be a real nuisance to neighbors.

LIFE HABIT

In the course of life, we experience a milieu of events and encounters, pass through a million moments of episodes, glide past a myriad of matters, and meet as well as interact with multitudes of people. Besides these, John Woodbridge says, “Our minds are bombarded by conflicting messages coming to us through diverse media: television, radio, records, films, print, the plastic arts. A collage of impressions and ideas streams through our minds each day, leaving traces in our memories. Sometimes the messages we receive complement and reinforce our Christian convictions. On other occasions, the messages attack our moral standards and sap our spiritual vitality. Sometimes we notice their subtle but devastating effect upon our minds only after months and years have passed.“

All these cause us to accumulate a store of memories and adjoint feelings, which coalesce to become a cache of undealt past. They pile up over a period of time and clog our beings with a backlog that tends to color and code almost everything we come across each day, month and year. A chance thought, word, picture, scene, meeting, etc., would activate this stash of impressions present in our minds, triggering corresponding emotions and feelings that hurt or comfort us, time and again.

When the prompt evokes positive reaction, we would be encouraged and blessed by remembering the past; but if the spark sets fire to bleak recollections, we may even descend into depressive outlooks that may even incapacitate us.

Just as unraked leaves rot and smell, give rise to damage and decay, undealt with hoard of past experiences, will tend to exude an emanation that would spoil everything around you. A buildup of redundant emotions and undealt-with matters would impact and affect not only you, but also those around you. One cannot sweep dust under the carpet and hope to live a life of freedom and joy.

CLEARED TO BE FUNCTIONAL

For a laptop or phone to keep fit and running, able to function at optimum speed and in best mode, it is important to empty its bin and clear the accumulated junk. Without doing so periodically, the system would become virus infested and eventually crash. It would also become unavailable for future storage or operation because it is full and no more space is there for anything!

Even so, we need to take time to deal with unresolved issues and clear piled up dirt, declutter ourselves, refurbishing ourselves to be as new. We take time to sweep the leaves and keep our yard clean, so that it looks aesthetic, smells good, and is functional and productive in the next season. In the same manner, we must take time and effort to deal with our stockpile to be fully effective and efficient, be productive as well as enjoy the days we have left in life.

Apostle Paul points out the importance of renewing our mind as being the key for transformation and being able to decipher and find God’s will (Rom 12:2). Lord Jesus gave the call “Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light.” (Matt 11:28-30).

May we take care of our hearts and minds, keeping them emptied and clear of junk, sweeping out leaves of past growth and gains, as well as bygone smarts and pains!

It is for the good of the garden and its growth that we rake the leaves and sweep the grounds. May we do the same for our own inner selves and beings, so that we may make room for new growth and fresh shoots!

A prequel to this, is my article: AUTUMN MODE