What grass clippings can teach us about beliefs

I was sitting on our back porch the other day and observed an adult teaching a teenager how to cut the grass in their backyard.

As I watched the lesson unfold, it provided a great example of how easily beliefs can be and are passed on from one person to another.

While the adult was teaching the teenager how to safely operate the lawn mower, he was also teaching him what to do with the grass clippings collecting in the attached mower bag.

Once the lawn mower was safely shut off, the adult showed the teenager how to remove the grass clipping bag and then showed him where to dump the clippings, which was onto the yard of the home being built behind him.

Why would he dispose of the clippings onto the property of another? Well, I can only speculate as I was observing from a distance, but here’s a potential reason:

For many years, the space behind his property was a cornfield and for the past several years it has been under construction as a new housing development.

Given the comfort and ease to which the adult emptied the mower bag and the abundance of previous grass clippings in the same location, it seemed reasonable to assume he has been emptying his grass clippings in this way for a long time and believes it is fine to do so even though it is not his property.

In other words, he has a belief that “grass clippings can be discarded onto the property of another”.

The teenager receiving instruction from the adult on how to cut the grass is now also learning the same belief that “grass clippings can be discarded onto the property of another”.

Time will only tell if their grass clipping disposal beliefs and resulting action will change once the new home is occupied but for now, the belief appears to be well implanted in the adult and is being seeded (no pun intended ) into the mind of the teenager.

While this is simply one example, it demonstrates how easily beliefs (whether we perceived them as good or bad) are passed from one person to another.

Now, if we apply this to all of the beliefs we have, we can begin to see how many of the beliefs we have did not originate from us. While we certainly create beliefs of our own as part of living on this planet, many have been passed onto us from others.

With this understanding, we can begin to see that we have a choice in whether we continue creating our lives based on the beliefs of another or whether we replace those beliefs with facts that better serve us, others and the world.

With this understanding, we can begin to truly create our life with conscious intention.

Are you ready?

‘Til next time if you liked this, please social share it. Together we can help create a global mind shift.