Mowing - life and meadows.

We’ve had so much rain around here recently that I have been unable to mow a meadow below my home.

The meadow grasses and what I thought were weeds, which I normally cut to about four inches, have grown to over eighteen inches and lo and behold the field is filled with wild flowers. It's beautiful.

There are daises, buttercups, lavender, Lilly’s of the Valley, Bluets, Forget-me-nots, and some bright blue flowers I can’t name; the meadow is speckled with brilliant color. Some flowers are tall, some are short, and there are broad leaves, thin leaves and all shapes and sizes in-between. I will feel sadness when my mower poweres over them. This is the second time in many years that they were allowed to grow to their fullness and flower.

The last time, as I circled the acreage cutting the field into a lawn again, I wondered how often that happens to people, especially young people who are cut off by the blade of parents opinion, teachers, group mores, social conditions and condemnations before their individuality can flower into full creative potential.

Authorities, both secular and religious, customs, both political and social often inhibit, if not restrict, the young from choosing a different path than what is or has been the norm.

How many great discoveries have we cut in the bud by saying we don’t do it that way, or we’ve never done it that way or that’s not the way it’s done. How many creative geniuses have we stifled because Dad or Mom went to that school and so should you or you’ll make more money doing this than that.

How many hearts have we broken or bent in saying, “you must, you should, you’d better, and you owe me."

Let the unending field of human color and its innate creativity blossom into greatness.

I believe as philosopher Joseph Campbell espoused, “Follow your bliss” and you will be happy and successful in the context of your happiness and the world will be a much better place for all of us.