Oh Bother

I push-mowed our yard yesterday. This was because our riding mower did a smoke and mirrors act,well, minus the mirrors. I made the call that it probably wasn't a good idea to continue mowing with that much smoke coming out of it. Then, I had a flashback to our old neighbor, Fred. Fred past away a few years ago. He survived a horrible car crash that would have killed most people only to then die from pneumonia before ever leaving the hospital. Fred was a typical old man in that he was nosy as could be, and yet kept pretty much to himself. He was a good neighbor to have. Quirky, but very kind and so was his wife.

So yesterday I was remembering the last time we had serious lawn-mower breakdown troubles. Erik and I had gotten the whole ginormous yard mowed except one very large square. I was trying to finish it our with our pushmower but night was quickly approaching. Two neighbors, Keith and Fred came over on their mowers(they had just finished their own mowing) and wrapped up our mowing in less than 10 minutes. It was an awesome neighborly moment. We were humbled and felt ushered into our new community with love only neighbors can show you.

Alas, there were no neighbors yesterday, as I was mowing in the daytime and all were at work-but it made me smile and spurred me on to think of Fred and the fact that if he could have, he would have rode over and helped. Maybe he was responsible for the perfect breeze that blew all day and kept me from being even the slightest bit hot despite the strong sunshiney day, you never know.

So anyway, that got me thinking about the fact that I just don't like to ask for help. I would not have asked Keith and Fred to help us mow-they just came over and did that day, years ago. AND yesterday? I did not run in and call on any of the people I KNOW would have loaned me their mower. I just made do. It was harder and took a loooong time, but it didn't bother anyone. I don't mind being bothered-I love to help and usually do so anytime I am asked, but to actually solicit help seems really uncomfortable.

Why is that? Reading Testosterhome's post (that I will link below) made me stop and ponder this a bit more. Am I missing out on some of the best blessings of friendship by being too independent? Go here and read and let me know how you are and what you think about the whole "bother" situation.
http://www.testosterhome.net/2008/05/risking-kindness.html