Hes here to cut the lawn and to draw us out of our COVID-induced depression – The Dallas Morning News

People are just really lonely right now, my neighbor Gavin Mogan told me, as I sat on my front porch watching him water some patches of sod hed brought over.

Theres this one guy, whose yard I work on, who literally comes out and walks with me as I mow ... just to have someone to talk to.

Gavin isnt a landscaper by trade, but this pandemic has pushed him into new ventures. He has Parkinsons disease and has spent the better half of the last decade as a fitness coach for others struggling with this same condition. The mind-body connection when it comes to this disease is crucial, and he has always understood that.

However, with the outbreak of COVID-19, his clientele began to dwindle. Fewer people were comfortable leaving their homes when it could mean truly putting their lives at risk. So Gavin adapted, as hes been doing since his own diagnosis in 2008.

Initially, he started recruiting others with Parkinsons disease (those still able to go outside) to partner with him doing yardwork around local neighborhoods for a little extra money. But as their abilities ebbed and flowed, he began offering the opportunity to anyone who might need it the teenage kid next door who wants to earn a few bucks and the man he met at a gas station who was out of work due to the pandemic and now living in his car. Sometimes they showed, sometimes they didnt, but either way Gavin is always there, working.

Most of the time he just appears in my front yard, trimming tree branches or power-washing my sidewalk. A few times Ive told him that I couldnt really afford his services at the moment and hed tell me its something he meant to do the prior week when wed hired him to just mow our lawn, so not to worry about paying for the maintenance, which was really so much more. Hed say its medicine to him and that he needed to do it. Because, again, that mind-body connection is real.

On days when he doesnt have any clients, he drives around the neighborhood and finds lawns in need of some TLC. He told me hell do them for free or what little money the person can pay. He showed me a picture of one backyard that looked like a jungle. He cleared it all out for $20.

When I told him that job was worth so much more he said, Yeah, but I knew she couldnt afford more than that. He explained that she was an elderly woman living on her own, and it was obvious she needed a little help and that it goes both ways. It helps him too.

We talked about how so many of us are struggling with low-grade depression right now. Were trapped inside with no end in sight. The only human connection many of us are getting right now is online, and its often at a fever pitch made up of pent-up emotions. Everyone is screaming at us that the sky is falling.

Normally, we can get away from that. Just walk outside and interact with others to remind ourselves that screens offer a skewed view of reality. But, for many, thats not an option these days.

Gavin explained that when we look out and see a mess all around us in our yards, it can feel like an outward expression of what were already feeling inside.

When people can see something nice outside their windows, it just might make what theyre experiencing internally feel more manageable," he said.

Ive experienced this firsthand. Last month, he cleared out all of the brush from our side yard; a place we barely ever go, full of wild, overgrown rosebushes. I honestly never really think about it, I just close the blinds and ignore the overgrowth.

But now, when I open our kitchen window, I see a clear space. And somehow it feels like I have more room to breathe because of it, even amidst this quarantine.

As I sat on my porch, I thought about the older gentleman who walks with Gavin, shouting over the mower, just to have some semblance of human connection.

That must be so hard, I thought, living alone during a pandemic. At least I have a partner and a houseful of children. As Gavin continued watering, I realize Id been talking his ear off for 30 minutes, so perhaps even I have a need for that type of calming human connection.

And thats when it hit me Gavin is offering more than just lawn care. In so many ways hes offering mental care. Hes helping those of us who need to know were not alone. Hes adding a bit of beauty among this chaos.

Hes reminding us that even though the online world may be a mess right now, the real world still exists, and people who care about their communities and neighbors are just outside our door.

Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa is a writer in Richardson and founder of New Wave Feminists.

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Hes here to cut the lawn and to draw us out of our COVID-induced depression - The Dallas Morning News