Three guesses as to what low-technology exercise I participated in Friday evening. I shoveled dirt, or more accurately, topsoil, from the bed of my pickup into low places in the back yard. It felt great — grass, birds singing, a pleasant breeze, the smell of fresh, moist dirt. I did not have to run a virus scan or check for spyware. I didn’t have to boot the system or wonder if Windows was loading too slowly. I had no firewall installed and neither did I have to give my user name or password.
I just shoveled dirt.
How powerful are the simple things in life? I get so complicated sometimes with my music, midi-controllers, software synthesizers, sequencer software, compressors, equalizers; sometimes I just need to play music and forget all the stuff; allow a few simple notes on the piano to capture me and take me a little ways away from the speed of living; slow me down; breaking the stranglehold of worry and greed for just a few moments and breathe some of God’s good air.
Sometimes we just need to shovel dirt and forget all the stuff. Mow the grass. Pull some weeds. That’s right, I said it out loud, well, not really but you know what I mean. I am admitting that sometimes I enjoy pulling weeds.
I love watching robins skip across the yard after bugs and worms. Don’t even get me started on watching birds; talk about old guy syndrome.
(Matthew 6:26 MSG) Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds.
