Leaf Lady

Years ago Tom and I rented a house for a brief period of time in a remote area. The only neighbors we had were three houses across the street which were inhabited by retired people. The couples in two of the houses were very friendly and extremely helpful. This particular area received a lot of snow in the winter time. When I say a lot of snow, I mean it snowed everyday. Hailey had just joined our family. Between a newborn and a 2 year old, Tom and I were pretty busy. Our kind neighbors took turns coming over to our house and snow blowing the driveway everyday. It was the kindest and most helpful thing I think anyone has ever done for us. Tom and I both greatly appreciated their generosity.

The last of the three neighbors was a little different. I didn’t see the husband so much, but I saw the wife everyday. The wife was, shall we say, a little obsessive about her yard and driveway. In the spring she was out everyday picking up winter twigs and preparing her flower beds. In the summer she was either mowing her lawn, raking her lawn, pulling weeds, or sweeping (yes sweeping) her driveway. She swept her driveway everyday at least once. In the winter she was busy clearing her driveway of snow. But it was the fall that puzzled me the most. In the Midwest the trees lose their leaves practically by the second throughout the fall. My neighbor was outside everyday raking leaves. After she had raked all her fallen leaves from the night before, she would retreat to her home. If the story stopped here then it wouldn’t be odd, but the story doesn’t stop here. Whenever a new leaf would fall on her yard, she would run out from her house and pick up the leaf. I am completely serious. Her days in the fall were spent running in and out of her house grabbing fallen leaves as soon as they landed on her pristine lawn. Now I’ve heard of having pride in ones lawn but this takes it to a whole new level. I’ve also heard of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and I suspect we had a classic text book case of this going on across the street.

At that time, Megan was only 2 and I can recall standing in the big picture window of our family room watching the neighbor race out her front door in pursuit of the fallen leaf. I can also recall Megan commenting in her toddler vocabulary, “That weird Mommy.” Out of the mouths of babes. It was weird and sad at the same time. I was curious about this woman and what caused her obsession with her yard. I felt it was possibly my neighborly responsibility to run across the street and perform and intervention, but labor pains started and the only intervention I wanted was medical intervention for me.

Now that I am at home full time with two children in school full time, I see how easily it could be to slide down that slippery slope of OCD. I have nothing to keep me entertained during the day so why not run outside and play a game of keep away with the leaves and my lawn. Why not get down on my hands and knees everyday and clean my base boards with a little brush? Why not freak out whenever liquid from the nights dinner spills over onto the oven floor? Why not climb a ladder daily and wipe down the ceiling fans? Why not? Because there is a plethora of good TV to watch throughout the day. Because there is a whole world of knowledge to be found via the internet. Because there are countless hobbies that one can become obsessed with which are far more productive then lawn and house obsessions. Because I guess I am just too lazy and too strong mentally to take a ride down the OCD slope.

Still I do look back at the time I spent watching the Leaf Lady race out of her house and chase down leaves, and I feel great sympathy and regret. Sympathy because evidently this lady had nothing else in life to find joy and completeness. Regret because I never took the time to go over to her house and save her. Leaf Lady if you are still out there, there are some great 12 step programs to assist you with this problem. There are also some fine medications. I would suggest you pursue both.