I’ve made quite a few changes in my personal life in order to live more simply, harmoniously, and respectfully, but I know I’m still unaware of many things I should be doing. You can’t change what you aren’t aware of, right? But, frankly, there are other things–things I know I should be doing–that I’ve been aware of, but somehow let slide. Here’s a great example.

We took out most of our lawn and replaced it with a perrenial garden several years ago, but we still have a little lawn between the sidewalk and curb in front of the house and a small pad where I do Tai Chi in back. It isn’t much lawn, but it does need to be mowed. I’ve rationalized using our old gas-powerd mower by saying, “It’s such a small amount of lawn that it can’t really matter much what kind of mower I use.” and “Why waste money when I have a perfectly good mower?”    

I went out to mow my lawn again last Sunday morning. It was a beautiful day and my neighbors across the street were sitting on their front porch, enjoying the morning. My 66-year-old next door neigbor was out mowing her lawn, too–with her push mower. My mower started with a roar, and a huge cloud of very stinky gray smoke began drifting toward my poor neighbors. I felt terrible: I was spoiling their quiet Sunday morning and toxifying their air.

After I finished mowing, I sat down with a cup of coffee and the paper. The first article I saw was titled “Push Mower is a Greener Option.” What a coincidence! The article stated that a Swedish scientist estimated that mowing an average-size lawn with a gasoline-powered mower emits as much air pollution as a 100 mile car trip. I’m sure my mouth dropped open. As soon as I read that, I knew I couldn’t use our old mower any longer. I’m getting a new push mower!