Working around the yard is touted as a “benefit” of home ownership. But, like all things that are touted as beneficial, this should be indulged in moderation so as not to cause oneself undue pain.
Removing old holly shrubs and replacing them with arborvitae is one of those things that requires a lot of want to. That is, you have to want to get the job done.
In my case, it would involve pacing myself while extracting the holly bushes in order to have enough energy to wheelbarrow in, dig holes and plant the replacement arborvitae.
I am thankful I can still do tasks like these on a weekend and survive enough to blog about it.
But, I was thinking that if when you are young, you could somehow experience for just one day how your body would feel like when it’s older, you’d be far less apt to behave like a punk in your youth.


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If you could experience this reverse time machine, you’d find out that:

  1. You can’t go at physical tasks like a bull as you did when you were younger (unless you just don’t want to finish at all).
  2. You shouldn’t get annoyed with older people as you work as a server while they squint through bifocals to look at the menu, before taking their order.
  3. You shouldn’t be impatient at the older person checking out ahead of you in line at the grocery store as they fumble through their bag to locate their method of payment.
  4. You’d slow down and be appropriately cautious as you came upon a white-haired driver sitting low in the driver seat, peering up over the steering wheel and going five miles per hour below the speed limit (instead of leaning on the horn and dangerously riding their ass).
  5. You’d no longer wonder why ibuprofen exists.
  6. You’d no longer take for granted perfect vision.
  7. You’d experience the subtleties of ageism and what it is like to be judged for not how well you can do something, but instead for how old you are and why your age effectively disqualifies you (unreasonably so) from competing with younger people in the job marketplace.
  8. You’d understand what an ass you are for being dismissive of the experience of older people and the wealth of knowledge and information they possess.
  9. It would make you wish you had people decades older than you in your inner circle now, rather than peers your own age you run with, who are soon discarded and forgotten for having given you not enduring friendship, but the brief passage of time and interaction that merely denotes an acquaintance.
  10. You’d wish you’d have been kinder to all those you come in contact with in order to make your golden years less taxing by being able to call upon those you would have dismissed for not being as cool as you, for the very assistance and companionship we all require as we age.