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How do you weigh in on leaf raking?
Can’t wait to get out there? Love frolicking in a pile of musty, crinkly fall?
I’m a resister.
I resist.
I avoid.
I dread.
I put off leaf raking.
Sometimes small-ish tasks loom large. This was one of them.

Finally, on a gorgeous, blue-skied, 50-degree day, we headed out to take the leaves.
My feet were heavy.
My shoulders slumped.
I did not want to do it.

The piles began to form.
The repetitive back and forth began to feel therapeutic.
Even a little calming.
I maintained my patience as Coleman raked a few leaves then took a break to do a 1 1/2 backflip on the trampoline.
Coming back to fiddle with the speaker blasting the playlist he put together for this moment of manual labor (sorry about that, neighbors ).

He shouted, “Mom! I put this one on for you!” as Savage Love started.
That song has been on replay in my head since March and the birth of its TikTok dance. I randomly hum it out loud without hardly thinking about it.
Anyone else experience that???

An hour passed.
Piles were raked.
We worked together to fill trash bags full of leaves and toss them in the garbage cans.
We cleaned up our tools and gear.
It wasn’t as bad as I thought.
I even liked it.

I almost ignored leaf raking this week.
But then I would have missed out on the satisfying layer of sweat formed from working outside on a beautiful day.
I would have missed out on being a team as we tried to get the leaves successfully bagged.
I would have missed out on the conversation – including Coleman hatching a plan to earn money to go to Disney World.

And I would have missed out on this video. Where the area under that swing got REALLY raked.

And we listened to the song he put on the playlist just for me.✊🏻💙

#givethanks