Gettin' My Anger On

I've been angry for the last few days and it makes me angry that I have been. I prefer not to waste energy on such negativity but I have to face the reality of feeling those feelings and letting them run their course. I step in to make modifications where I can and where I should, but overall, I free myself to feel.

A couple things in close proximity that have chapped my ass as of late:

• A neighbor -- My neighbor and his goal of eliminating just about every damn tree in his yard urks me to no end. It's generally none of my business what he does in or with his yard, I realize this. I suppose it's just the contrast with my goals that makes it something that I find myself thinking about. In my yard, I'm planting or watering or caring for something that is growing every day. I'm promoting growth, food production, culinary flavoring, flowering plants to promote pollination and in general, nurturing an area to become my own private sanctuary. On the other side of the fence, my neighbor had 8 trees removed over the weekend so he can have a pool in his backyard. The removal of those trees means fewer homes for the birds and squirrels that call this neighborhood their own. It means less privacy between the two yards because the natural screen that filtered sight and sound is there no more. That means I have more planting ahead for my yard. That's all fine and dandy, I wanted to plant a couple of citrus trees anyway. I just hope they fill some of the gap before his family is up on their pool's decking peering into my yard. I know this particular neighbor is a peerer. He recently expressed his outrage about the neighbor on the other side of him. Apparently, that neighbor was lounging by his pool with only a newspaper. No clothes. That didn't go over well. (Thank goodness he didn't see us bathing nude in the rain when we lost our power due to a hurricane. We're on a well so when the power goes, so does our water.)
• All of my neighbors -- Nearly every home on this block uses chemical fertilizers on their lawns to keep them green and lush, picture perfect. That yanks my chain because we are all on wells and they fail to realize what happens to those sprays, powders and pellets after they're no longer on the grass surface. We're just too close for comfort when it comes to such things.

It's the combination of those two things plus the constant development of my neighborhood's boundaries that continues to remind me that I really want space, rural space. For now, however, I will learn to move beyond the anger and find contentment in getting my hands dirty. Eventually the natural screen will be replaced and I'll find the comfort I'm working to create. Then some of the anger won't seep into my space and I'll be free to enjoy my surroundings.