It’s still rather amazing to me how many story ideas come about while I’m mowing grass.

This is the ninth year I’ve been cutting grass, and I still find it to be one of the most delightful tasks I’ve ever been blessed with. My mower’s name is Chadwin, and we work together as a very loud (and efficient) pair.

While mowing I generally listen to music on noise-canceling headsets, and take off for hours of going back and forth, hither and yon, and around dozens of trees and other country-ish obstacles. Although I do have to pay attention to what I’m doing, cutting grass isn’t a 100% focused-requiared task, so I get to do a lot of brainstorming while watching the little grass particles fly.

Yesterday I cut grass for nearly four hours, and as soon I’m finished with this post I’m going to slap some sunscreen on (cause I didn’t think of doing that yesterday…), and head back out to cut some more.

Cutting grass during this time of year is my favorite – it’s not extremely hot yet (the high today is 81), and the multiple hayfields haven’t been cut yet, which makes the contrast between the cut yards and the uncut hayfields delightful. There are also thousands upon thousands of clover, daisies, black-eyed-susans, and dozens of other kinds of flowers to keep me company as I mow.

Yesterday as I was cutting and thinking, a story idea popped into my head and churned around for the last hour or so of mowing. Last night I jotted down some of the ideas, and am carrying my phone along with me as I mow which means I can keep writing down more thoughts as they come.

So many of my bookish ideas have either been thought up, or crystallized, on the mower, that someday I’ll probably have to dedicate a book to Chadwin. Before I had a phone I would carry a small notebook and pen with me when I mowed, simply so I could capture some of the amazing thoughts that would flood into my brain.

What about you? Do you have some daily activity that never fails to inspire you?