Are you one of those folks who gets the mower out in early April? Do you love a pristine, mono-culture lawn?

Well, we’re not those kinds of folks. While we appreciate the immaculate lawns in town, we like to let our own grass and flowers grow a bit before taking a ride on the mower–and my husband likes to scythe parts of the yard for hay. Crunchy, I know. But when you have a few acres in the country, you can get away with it.

This year, when we were finally ready to take a first pass on cutting the lawn, the mower wouldn’t start. It needed new parts. And my husband was finishing teaching a power systems class for the first time at the local university (in addition to his day job as an engineer). And I was wrapping up my first year of leading a local homeschool co-op.

The lawn had to wait a bit longer than usual. But it didn’t wait begrudgingly.

My friends, we were rewarded with a beautiful show of wildflowers. And lots of frogs hopping all around in the evenings, too. May is a busy month full of end-of-school-year happenings. In the midst of it all, I would like to share a bit of beauty that came from something not happening. Enjoy.

The lovely show I’ve captured for you here spans April and May, but not comprehensively. There have been even more flowers beneath our feet–spring beauties, tiny violets, yarrow, and flowers for which I don’t yet know the names. (The ones I do know, I’ve learned mostly from friends or from the book Arkansas Wildflowers, which organizes flowers by color for easy reference.)

The front lawn is mowed now, and we’ve edged around the house. There’s still tall grass and wildflowers out in the side yard, to keep those neighborhood bees happy (yes, we get honey from across the fence–it’s wonderful).

So if your lawn gets a little long and scraggly this summer, and you just can’t get around to mowing it as soon as you’d like, I hope this post will encourage you to find the beauty in it even as you make space in the schedule for your lawn care routine. Enjoy the season.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The words of Jesus, from Matthew 6:28b-33