What’s in your garden? Do you have a trimmed, manicured, symmetrical, color- coordinated garden or a free flowing, non-symmetrical one with every color of the rainbow?
Are there rocks, lumps, and water features? Do you have a garden in suburbia or do you have to routinely push back the forest in order to claim your space? What are your favorite plants? Annuals that burst forth with colors, steady perennials whose colors change with the seasons, trees and bushes that bear fruits and berries or combinations of all the above. Do you have to fight the local deer population in order to enjoy the color or does your neighbors’ tree see fit to deposit all its leaves on your side of the fence. The possibilities are endless.
I have come to see our lives as gardens. Our gardens are full of a variety of plants, all colors, shapes and size. Plants come and go with the seasons of our life. One thing that is constant in all our gardens is weeds. I see the weeds in our gardens as our habits and coping strategies. Weeds can be pretty and beneficial. Dandelion honey, wine and tea are delicious. Some of our habits are wonderful and beneficial to our lives, others not so much. I have spent hours pulling weeds and what follows are a few things I have learned about weeds.
First there are the weeds with one long straight root. With gentle persuasion the weed comes up without a hitch, bringing with itself all its parts and pieces. These weeds/habits have been with us for a while but aren’t doing us any good or aren’t as important as when they became habits. At some point in our lives, cooking dinner every night or keeping a super clean house was important. That is a habit that can be ‘pulled up’ when it no longer serves us.
Next are the weeds with shallow roots that spread out forever. These weeds/habits haven’t been with us very long and yet have become very integrated into our way of life. They require a bit more work, loosening, prying and a more insistent tug and they are gone. Very gratifying when you sit back and have this really big bundle of stuff in your hand and throw it into the bucket
