as i mowed my lawn today
i had this memory of my father
mowing the lawn when i was growing up

my father wouldn't mow on sunday

i grew up in a farming community
and the farmers wouldn't plant nor harvest
on sunday
unless absolutely necessary
and then they would apologize for
*breaking sabbath*

my father would not even work in the garden on a sunday
he'd walk through and examine it
perhaps admire the tomatoes
or pull off a tomato worm, if he happened to see it
but anything more would be working on the sabbath
and that was frowned upon

i don't know when the sabbath slipped away.
perhaps when i was a teenager
and i wasn't around as much.
or perhaps when my father retired
and everyday became a weekend