I am on a break after a busy summer.
Time to stop all activity, no housework, cooking, shopping, talking, gardening, phone calls or driving.
I have learned if I don’t take a holiday at this time of the year my body will cry out some other way.
I will take sick and be confined to bed, or some other circumstance arise to cause me to stop working or giving out emotionally or mentally.
God knows we will over work.  He tells me in Psalm 23
“The Lord is my shepherd, he leads me beside still waters and green pastures to restore my soul.”
As I was enjoying the view of pine trees across from my window, the peace and stillness was broken by the chug, chug of an engine.  I looked out to see someone mowing the long grass outside.
The sound took me back fifteen years.

 
Our family had moved into a big house with a big garden.
It was overgrown and had not been cared for.
Years of fallen leaves had built up and thorns and briers grew up freely.
I knew there would be rich soil underneath all this cover.
How was I going to restore this land?
I like a challenge and outdoor work.
I found a second hand lawnmower in the Ads for Free magazine, just like the one the gardener is using today.
It did not cost much but this was a power machine for me over the next years to clear my land.
Briers, thorns, old grass and odd refuse were cut to pieces and collected by my machine and I.
I sowed grass seed in the newly cleared ground and before long I had a green lawn.
I was not daunted by the overgrown garden.  It was a challenge I overcame.
I cleared my land of thorns and thistles.
Today I am glad to be resting from my labour.