Raking Leaves

Yesterday I was outside raking the leaves from my live oak tree in my front yard.  As I was sweating my butt off in the eighty degree March heat of Florida a thought came into my head:

              "I love the shade, but I don't love raking the leaves."

I also don't love pruning the tree, as it is pretty tall, but the branches will hang low from their own weight.  But pruning I must do.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?) that's how life works though.  If you want to enjoy some of the finer things in life (like shade on a hot summer day), then you have to do the things that allow you to be in the position to enjoy those things.

Examples:

• Work hard, earn money, go on a nice vacation
• Work hard, earn money, buy a nice car (or truck)
• Work hard, earn money, buy a nice home

Yes, I could have not raked leaves and still had the benefit of the shade of my live oak tree when the leaves come back.  But if I don't rake up the leaves, then the grass under the tree will eventually suffocate.  Then what fun will sitting on dirt be under the shade of my oak?  

Besides life is not suppose to work that way!  You are not supposed to get a free ride.  You have to put effort into life in order to reap the rewards/benefits.  Surely you've heard the expression "reap what you sow."  If you don't sow anything ... what is there to reap?  And certainly if you sow corn seed you don't expect to reap oranges ... do you?

As I heard Les Brown say once "If you do what is easy, life will be hard.  But if you do what is hard, life will be easy."  So don't shy away from hard work today ... because tomorrow you can be sitting in the shade!