Thursday, August 3, 2017

Gardens Take Time: The Joy of Weeding

A while back I wrote a post about gardens as an analogy of life. I love analogies! I mentioned in the post that I felt my life garden was being pruned, weeded, replanted and improved by my Heavenly Father and that it wasn't always appreciated!  Turns out that whatever analogy you use for change hurts--a refiner's fire sound appealing to anyone?

After neglecting my back yard for a month while I flitted (drove endlessly?) from Nampa to Utah, Nampa to Boise, Nampa to Utah, Nampa to Riggins and Nampa to Utah, I was greeted with sad flowers and triumphant weeds. Tall, towering, terrible, triumphant weeds. After one hour of weeding yesterday, I wrote a facebook post that was meant to be funny but truthfully must have sounded like I was about to consider killing myself with a gardening implement. Friends came out of hiding and offered me love and encouragement, advice and good wishes, and from one much loved friend, "Real friends pull weeds together." No, Sheila, real friends go to lunch together!

Because of the outpouring of well-wishes, I went outside with a lighter heart today. I noticed yesterday's progress and by the time I went back inside two hours later, I felt wonderful. I started weeding by kneeling down near my lavender plant and breathing in its wonderful scent while freeing it from weeds that were trying to choke its life out. I emptied basket after of basket of wild morning glory vines winding around everything in reach, common mallow (I just did a weed image search so I can call these weeds out by name!), dandelions with stickers, crabgrass, and goat head weeds--all the while contemplating the blessings in my life. And believe me, two hours is not nearly long enough to contemplate all the blessings I enjoy.

So one more garden analogy that fits with life--friends make burdens lighter and tackling tough weeds and winning one battle at a time feels really great!

No comments:

Post a Comment