Cause And Effect

About a week and a half ago, I got up in the middle of the night to let my cat, Sirius, go outside. As I walked across my dark room,  I accidentally stepped squarely and quite forcefully onto something rigid and small. Ouch. I hurt my foot.

Today, I spent several hours working on an often-neglected corner of my backyard, and it's now perfectly weeded, pruned and raked out. I'm so excited and happy about the fresh, crisp look going on back there.

These, my friends, are not unrelated events. 

They are, in fact, paired by cause and effect.

See that big green hammock? That's where I was supposed to be spending my afternoon. Resting my foot. Because it still hurts like the bloody devil and I'm not taking proper care of myself. All this running around on spits is entirely unhelpful to my cause.

Truth be told, I don't ordinarily spend much time lying around on my big green hammock. When I'm out in my gardens, I prefer to dig holes, rip out giant heaps of weeds, and saw down tree branches. But today, I vowed to myself, would be different. Rest. Rest. And only rest.

So after lunch, I slipped back into this shady corner, and stretched out on the hammock, propping my aching foot just so. Mmmm, it was lovely. The hammock rocked ever so slightly, a cool breeze kept me from overheating, and the sun shined through the delicate canopy of leaves above my head. I listened to Ranger snoring under a nearby bush, and maybe even caught a few winks myself. 

It's lovely back here, I thought to myself. I should do this more often.

But throughout this peaceful repose, I heard whispers. Murmurs. Mocking voices that rose to a chatter and then screamed in my ears. 

Dead branches. Spent blossoms. Overgrown mosses, last year's rose canes, drooping vines, and weeds, weeds, weeds! Everywhere I looked, I saw work that desperately needed to be done.

Of course, I couldn't do it.

I shouldn't do it.

I wouldn't do it! 

My agenda for the day was rest, rest, and only rest. Right?

Yeah, right. We all know what happened next. I dragged out my tools, cranked up the hose, and got down and dirty for several hours, turning this neglected little corner into a neat and orderly paradise.

That is the story of how my injured foot led to a glorious garden transformation. 

Simple cause and effect.

And I owe it all to Sirius, whose mewing at the back door at 4 a.m. set the whole sequence of events in motion.