Relative Something

Happy World Labyrinth Day! Even though I had mowed the center of the labyrinth pathway with the push mower, a lot of tall grass remained around the rocks where the mower blade couldn’t reach. Ever the perfectionist, I was unable to resist the urge to do a little touch-up with our battery-powered string trimmer. The more I worked, the more I noticed additional areas deserving a trim.

The next thing you know, I had walked back to the shop to get the gas-powered string trimmer in order to trim around both sides of the rock barriers for the entire length of the circuitous path. This is not a zero-time exercise. While I was toiling away on this struggle to get the spinning plastic line into every nook and cranny without constantly breaking off because of impact with rocks, it occurred to me how Sisyphean the activity is.

My life is a Sisyphean effort to control nature’s endless tendencies. The rock always rolls back down whenever it nears the top.

When the sun shines in the spring, every growing thing takes off at breakneck speed toward achieving maximum potential. When I try to control where we want some things to grow or where we don’t want other plants to grow at all, the universe laughs.

It never ceases to amaze me that blades of grass can push up through the asphalt along the edges of our driveway.

The other winless battle I wage is against the flow of water. Try as I might, I cannot convince water to only flow where I want it to go. Water will not flow uphill; that seems easy enough. However, water will gladly choose any alternate route that offers less resistance to a lower elevation at a given moment.

Every spring, I try to shape the ground to guide snowmelt or rain runoff away from the paddock gates. Every spring, that effort ultimately fails.

At least I get to enjoy how things look for the brief day or two after I’ve rolled the symbolic rock most of the way up the hill.

Cyndie has prepared a few treats for refreshments, and I intend to light a small campfire by the labyrinth for our “Walk as One at 1:00” today. Feel free to send your own beams of peace pondering into the universal consciousness wherever you find yourself at 1:00 p.m. in your local time zone. The wave has already started traveling around the globe on this first Saturday in May in the year 2025.

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