I signed the many papers required to buy my house on May 1, 1991 and moved that weekend. My colleague Deanie Carver used her pickup truck to help me move several boxes of books (of course, these important items were first to be moved). The late Adrian Shoffner and Rev. Joe McCoy helped me move the household furnishings. Preacher Joe has never forgotten the ordeal moving that upright freezer into the basement turned out to be. I felt so guilty that I didn’t go to church that Sunday, but I couldn’t find my dress shoes in time to get ready!

It had been several months since the yard had been mowed at my new residence, and I determined after work to take my push mower and begin reclaiming the 0.07 acre lawn from the weeds. I quickly learned how inadequate a push mower was for this work, but I plodded on.

The first person to come to my aid was my wonderful mother. She pretty much followed along behind me and raked what grass I managed to mow. Other neighbors followed. Fred and Carol Lee Simmons were most invaluable helpers, and Clarence Robbins also lent a hand. We all decided pretty quickly that only a bush hog was going to help that yard, so Adrian Shoffner again came to the rescue and bush hogged the yard. After that, Carol Lee mowed it with her riding mower with the deck set as high as it would go. Then the push mower, though still struggling, could actually mow the grass.

It was a warm and wonderful feeling to have these dear friends volunteer and help me in my time of need. It was the best welcome to the neighborhood that anybody could ask.
I vowed in my mind never again to let my yard get into such a state of neglect that it would have to be bush hogged. I try to mow at least weekly, but there have been a few times due to schedules and rainy/dry weather that it has gone two weeks.

Eventually I managed to buy a used riding lawnmower, and I have come to enjoy “riding the yard”. I let my mind wander as I mow—it is a great time to think and meditate. A mishap this very weekend caused me to have a moment of revelation.

I have faithfully for twenty-nine years mowed around a piece of rebar that marks the corner of my property line. This weekend I mowed my yard in a different pattern as I was also mowing my neighbor’s yard. All of the sudden I heard an unpleasant, loud sound from the lawnmower deck. After carefully mowing around that property marker for all those years, I unintentionally mowed right over the top of it.

Thankfully, the lawnmower kept running, the blades kept turning, and most remarkable of all, the blades continued to cut. I still have not found where the piece of rebar went.
Life is sometimes the same way. We spend our entire lives building friendships, and one moment of thoughtlessness tears it down. Friends can have millions of good times and pleasant memories, but they are overshadowed by one moment of indiscretion.

And so it is with reputation. It’s remarkable that a million good deeds can go unrecognized and forgotten, but one bad choice or moment of indiscretion can ruin a person’s standing in the community.

Thankfully, my lawnmower was not noticeably damaged by my moment of indiscretion. Even had it been, it is my personal property and I would have owed no one else an apology or remuneration. Not so with moments or words of indiscretion. How deeply the careless remark can pierce the human heart! At times even our best friends are unmoved by even a heartfelt apology, and the breach can never be mended.

I remember a quote of Carl Sandburg that was in one of my elementary school grammar books:

“Look out how you use proud words. When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back. They wear long boots, hard boots; they walk off proud; they can't hear you calling - Look out how you use proud words.”

Mr. Sandburg said this so well that I wonder if he knew it from example or personal experience. It is so much better to learn from the examples of others; unfortunately, I more often learn from experience, the hardest of teachers!

Forgiveness does not come easily—vengeance and retaliation are bred in human nature; however, there are those who can forgive and not bear grudges, and blest are they. Perhaps the greatest test of friendship is the level of forgiveness. There is much truth in the adage, “To err is human, to forgive is divine”.

I leave you with yet another tidbit for thought from my email world:

A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: “Keep off the grass.”