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3 Life Lessons from Yard Work

Aaron Pace
4 min readAug 10, 2019

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The lilac hedge behind my house.

They’re not in bloom right now, but we have a hedge of lilac bushes growing by the fence that separates our yard from our back door neighbor. I love the smell of lilacs in full bloom.

My wife and I built our home in 2004 when our oldest child was still small enough to walk under the kitchen table without hitting his head. (He’s six feet tall now). I grew up in a home with a yard, but somehow remained mostly ignorant to the amount of work required to maintain a home and a yard. I feel extremely blessed to live in an area of the world where I can own a home and the land it sits on.

For many years, I dreaded yard work. Winter was my favorite season because it meant only occasionally having to shovel snow. It was a great day for me when our oldest was finally able to push the lawn mower around the yard cutting the grass (mostly). As each of our five children have grown, they’ve all increased in capability to do yard work which meant less for me.

A few weeks ago, I was outside mowing the lawn while my oldest was off camping with friends. I was near the lilacs and something caught my eye.

A close-up. Do you see what I see?

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Aaron Pace
Aaron Pace

Written by Aaron Pace

Married to my best friend. Father to five exuberant children. Fledgling entrepreneur. Writer. Software developer. Inventory management expert.

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