Procrastination is not always a bad thing.

I procrastinate a lot.

And I usually feel guilty about it.  The world is set up to reward those who get things done.  Even your sneakers urge you “Just do it.”

Laziness, in my case, leads to some extraordinary efficiency–because I am going to find the easiest way to do something if it kills me–and to many missed opportunities.  (Could have had this post done a week ago, for example.)

Today’s Monday Miracle, though, is the discovery that procrastination is not always a bad thing.

Here at Casa Lagarto, I don’t have much furniture, but I do have a labyrinth.  I’m very fond of the labyrinth, because hey!  It’s a labyrinth!  Do you have one?  And because my mom and I made it together, and because it was a cool way to use up some slate that was just sitting in the yard when we bought the Casa, and because it is a lovely peaceful way to spend some time outdoors.

When we laid out the slate, it was clear that maintenance was going to be a factor.  I live in a subtropical climate.  Grass and weeds grow like…well, like weeds…if given half a chance.

Being lazy, I didn’t do much prep work.  We pretty much just drew the pattern with a non-permanent eco-friendly spray paint and dropped the stones where we wanted them.  There was no digging or grading or anything.

And there we had the labyrinth.  On top of the grass.  (There wasn’t really so much grass right then.  More of that anon.)  The slate varied in height from thin little…um…slates…to slabs over two inches thick.  Clearly, it was not going to be possible to mow the labyrinth as it existed on the first day.

I pondered the situation and decided that I was going to have to set each stone into the ground.  You know.  Level.  So a mower could pass over it cleanly.  But it was hot, and we had just moved a whole lot of rock, and it seemed that the digging part of the project could wait for another day.  Meanwhile, I would use the weed whacker to trim the grass in and around the labyrinth.

That was two years ago.

The digging part of the project hasn’t happened yet.  It was always too  hot or too cold or I was too busy with other projects.  Honestly, I just didn’t want to do it.  Even weed whacking seven circuits every week or so was not enough to convince me that the effort involved in sinking them into the ground would be worth it.

They sank a little bit over time.

And then–Tropical Storm Debby!

The uphill side of all the stones is totally level with the ground.  The downhill side not so much.  But a little fill dirt will take care of that.  And any fool knows it is easier to drop dirt than dig it up.

So, I’m not gonna need to do any digging to get my labyrinth in shape.  (In fact, had I done it at the beginning, I’d be digging again to dig it out!)  I’ll probably be able to mow over it this time next week.

Procrastination is not always a bad thing.

Oh, and the grass?

That’s another area where procrastination helped.

We had a lot of bare spots in the yard.  And then we made more by hiring some guys with a stump grinder to get rid of the cypress knees and some tree roots so we could mow. ( I’m tellin’ you, between the labyrinth and the cypress knees and the sweet gum balls, the back yard was a death trap for lawn mower blades!)

And the Man of the House (hereafter to be known as the MotH) kept wanting to buy sod.

I don’t know much about laying sod, but I have a pretty fair notion that it’s not like rolling out a carpet.  I was not enthusiastic.  I kept saying, “We just have to give it a chance.  It’s not getting enough water,” and putting on the sprinkler when my memory of the necessity coincided with our designated watering days.

Plus, we put out a little grass seed now and then.

Recovery was slow.

Until Tropical Storm Debby.

Now, the lawn is doing rather well.  And the MotH is no longer muttering about sod.

Procrastination is not always a bad thing.  And neither are tropical storms.