The weather lately has been incredibly fantastic, as you may have noticed. So, being the outdoor addict that I am I have been trying to find every excuse to be outside for every minute I can before I am trapped in the windowless confines of the Xray department. 

One activity that has been keeping me outdoors has been the task of raking my lawn - not that it is much of a lawn, but it gives me something to do.

I started the process yesterday morning and completed it today before work. Sort of. 

A piece of advice: Don't attempt to rake your lawn when, A) There are still 75% of the leaves on the trees in your yard, and B) The wind is blowing the opposite direction you are raking the leaves in.

Both are very counterproductive.

It seemed that every time I would get the pile of leaves a few feet, the wretched wind would kick up and toss my leaves back to their respective places on the lawn. 

I would sigh, take my rake and go back to where they had blown and re-rake them onto my pile. 

Again, the wind would blow, and I would re-rake the leaves. 

I would stop every once in a while and take a deep breath, trying to control my frustration. As if mocking me, the wind would russell the leaves that still remained on the big Oak in my front yard. 

Laughter. That's what it was. It was laughing so hard it would cry leaves... 

....Right onto my newly raked front lawn. 

It was like moving two steps forward and one step back. Was I making progress or just giving myself prematurely gray hair? 

Can you imagine what it would be like if I tried to do this without my rake - My trusty rake? 

As I was fighting the natural elements that seemed to be interfering with my productivity rate, I got to thinking about one particular issue I have struggled with for a while now. I thought about how every day I have to get up and face it. Like the leaves, I feel like it has blown back into my yard. Didn't I fix this yesterday? Why is it still here? Why do I still struggle with this? 

Some days, the wind isn't blowing that hard, and cleaning up the debris is pretty easy. But it always seems as if there is more when I wake up in the morning. So out I go again, with my Trusty Rake and I fight the elements and attempt to clean up my problem. 

Sometimes, it feels as if you are moving two steps forward and one step back. 

You might think you're over your eating disorder.
You might think you're over your smoking habit. 
Your alcohol problem.
Your sex addiction. 

But you wake up and look in your backyard, and there they are. The dreaded leaves. Will they ever be gone?

Some days it is more of a struggle, the wind may be blowing stronger, or the leaves might be damp and harder to rake. But, you know what? You're still making progress.

As long as you have your Rake you can clean up the seemingly never-ending onslaught of leaves. 

Even though you might feel like you're losing ground - or at least not gaining it - you are still taking two steps forward with every day that you fight it. 

That's progress. 

"Perseverance must finish its work so that you can be full and complete, not lacking anything."

~ James 1:4