The Lawnmower and the New Creation

Scripture Readings for the 2nd Sunday in Easter (link)

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for 2nd Sunday in Easter, Book of Common Prayer)

I’m hopeful to take a little step into the new creation by mowing the lawn this week. After Holy Week and Easter, I’ve turned back to tending new plants and some furniture prototypes. Soon I’ll add a new wooden gardener’s tote to my online store, where you’ll find some nice items for a commercial kind of day!

(That now includes nice wooden fishing lures handmade by my friend Charlie, well suited for your spinning or fly-casting. And with gardening season here, the linseed oil and beeswax ‘table balm’ makes a great protective finish for wooden tool handles.)

This being the Easter season, it’s worth listening for the little invitations God utters for us to step by faith toward the new creation a bit more, in this present moment. The reality christians call the resurrection of Jesus Christ reveals a promise and in-working of healing, fulfillment, and reconciliation, not just for human creatures, but the entire created universe, including grass, elemental iron and carbon. Not to mention your neighbor, with whom you have some property dispute, difference over yard orderliness, or other, weightier matters in need of reconciliation.

But I’m starting small, just reconciling myself to mowing. And to start, I’m fulfilling my Lenten mower maintenance with Easter lawn operations.

Here is the mower, with its new blade. I cleaned the gas tank, the carburetor, changed the oil. I know I know, I should run out and buy an electric mower. Maybe someday, but for now I have this one, and I’ll use its embodied energy for a while, and burn a little petrol gas in the process. The maintenance of this petrol burner is another invitation to a more contemplative appreciation of what is, here and now, and a commitment to not need the newest, the best, the most virtuous commodity. “I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.’" Psalm 16:2

And as it turns out, a grass lawn, when planted and tended in ecologically appropriate ways, proves to be a notably net carbon sink,  even when one subtracts the emissions from a mower. This article in resilience describes the author’s moment of insight regarding the carbon sequestring potential of lawns. It certainly tipped me a bit more in favor of (modest) lawns. This is another kind of reconciliation, moving our hearts and minds beyond our stuck ways of thinking, framing, and evaluating, which may be a big part of polarized problems.

So, here on the west side of the cascade mountains in washington, I will mow the lawn at my house with the diligence and care of a good tenant. This is how I mow anyway. I set my mower deck high, leaving the grass longer. This helps conserve water, and is recommended by the city. I leave the clippings to become part of the soil. I’ll mow weekly now, and as the grass growth slows, every other week. Once we hit the two month’s of crackly dry in late summer, I’ll stop mowing (mostly) until it rains.

And I will leave an unmowed strip where grass, evening primrose, poppy, and other weedy and wildflowery plants can grow, providing forage and cover for birds and insects.

june 2020

Native prairie, oak savannah and chestnut commons it is not, but every little bit helps. It’s also no small thing that I’ll delight in the tinkering, in leaving the plants to grow, in watching them as the bees buzz, and the finches perch, and raid evening primrose seeds.

And I pray that we each may tend a little patch that invites a greater peace to dwell with us. May it bind your heart to the new creation, and the faithful and compassionate God drawing the whole of us toward the reconciliation only God can forge.