Together, We Can Move Mountains

Mulch Mountain
I am not a morning person: never was, never will be. Having revealed that, I hasten to add that some mornings are worse than others. There are mornings when I feel pretty good, am relatively alert — for me anyway, if not compared to regular people. Then, there are mornings like this one: mornings where I feel almost as though I am under a weight; mornings when lugging my bod from the chair to the couch seems like a slog.

If I can occupy myself at the keyboard for a few hours, I don’t mind feeling like that. I can even accomplish some semi-productive things when I’m in that state: printing another page for the family photo album, for example.

Today, however, several yards of mulch were dumped at our gate: too bright and too early. At the very least, I was expecting a phone call telling me that the load would arrive in an hour. “I’ll be okay by then,” I told myself.

Not to be: they arrived within minutes of that placating but fleeting thought.

So, it was time to slog. Sometimes, you don’t have a choice — ya gotta slog onward — ya gotta keep putting one foot in front of the other … until the job is done.

That’s what I did today, wheelbarrow-load after wheelbarrow-load: loading, moving, dumping, spreading. Until all of the mulch, over three cubic yards of it, was resting on its appointed ground.

Sue, of the fractured back, poor dear, helped as best she could. She pulled back plants so I could shovel mulch in. Then she would pat the shreds and chips into place. After she could do no more, she prepared lunch and then sat outside with me until the beast was tamed — okay, until the mulch had all been moved.

Sue is my partner. Has stayed with me through thick and thin. Stayed with me today, just being there, boosting my spirits when she could do no more. It was enough! She helped to pull me through, just by being there. Yes, it was enough: always has been; always will be.

It’s great to have a true-blue, life-partner. Together, we can move mountains. Or at least piles of mulch that seemed to loom higher than Everest on this particular day.