Every spring I have great hopes as I plant my garden. I can’t wait to see the radishes be the first to break the surface. About the same time the ground cracks down the bean row and it’s only a few days before their curved backs stretch out of the ground. It always amazes me that the seed grows.
Unfortunately, I swear my garden has been cursed! Before some of the plants are even big enough to identify,a carpet of green covers the ground. It’s been that way ever since we had the topsoil hauled in. Scads and scads of weeds. I’ve tried pulling them every day but invariably I get busy and miss a day…or ten. Then we go on vacation and the persistent weeds take over. We’ve tried hitting the entire area with chemical to decimate the suckers in hopes that the following year would give us different results. No such luck. Weeds still carpet the surface.
One year I planted an Angel’s Trumpet to add an accent in a boring corner of the garden. Angel’s Trumpet is an easy to grow plant that bears beautiful trumpet-like flowers. Oddly enough, the next year my entire garden yielded a strange evil twin to the Angel’s trumpet! I called it the Devil’s Accordion. It was an ugly beast that grew about 2 feet tall while we were on holidays, covered in flowers that never opened. It proved to be a horribly invasive monster that took a couple of years to eradicate.
I’ve had lots of time to think as I’ve spent time pulling the endless supply of weeds. Life and gardens share many similarities. In life, like my garden, things rarely happen exactly how we planned. We may dream about rows of beautiful flowers and abundant crops but what we deal with most often are invasive weeds. Whenever we put ourselves out there and try something that is hard for us, we expect that it will all come up flowers…and more often than not we are surprised by weeds.
Those darn weeds that keep popping up and trying to choke out our effort, squelch our dreams. If we are looking for things to blame we can always find several. In my garden, I can blame the quality of the topsoil. I can blame the field of weeds behind our house that sends their seeds floating into my eager soil. I can blame the weather for being too cold, too hot, too windy to make me want to spent time pulling weeds. But when it comes down to it, if I want my little carrots to survive, it’s pointless to waste my energy blaming. Instead, I have to do the hard work of reaching in and pulling those nasty suckers one cursed weed at a time.
The same is true in my life, there are plenty of things I can point my finger at in blame but the negative thoughts are rooted squarely within my own head and, if I’m ever going to produce something positive, I have to deal with them one unproductive thought at a time.
I have to do the hard work of reaching in and pulling those nasty suckers one cursed weed at a time.
Oddly enough. in life we sometimes take our blaming a step further and we blame the seed. I’ve never done this with my garden but as humans we do this all the time. We turn on ourselves and proclaim ‘See I shouldn’t have tried!’ When we make an effort and it seems fruitless we assume that what we have to offer is flawed.
Sometimes in the garden of our minds it gets even worse and the pervasive weed is the thought that it’s not only our efforts that are flawed but it’s us. We think we are what is flawed. That, my friends, is shame. A horrid, invasive, life sucking weed that will take over and choke out any thing you try to grow and accomplish in your life. Brené Brown, who has spent years researching shame, refers to it like this:
“Shame is that warm feeling that washes over us, making us feel small, flawed, and never good enough…It is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging.” (The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown)
Everyone alive is worthy of love and belonging. Every seed in every person is worth nurturing. Don’t believe for a minute that you have nothing to offer. If you are doing what is put in your heart to do, trust me the seed is good. You may have to adjust where you plant, how you plant, and alter some conditions but it doesn’t mean what is placed within you is not good. And it never means that what you are so deeply flawed you have no value.
As simple as it seems, nothing good will ever be harvested by not planting. Focus on the real problem – not the seed but the weeds. Be diligent. One weed or thought at a time. Trying to totally decimate all problems at once is tempting but it doesn’t work. Be methodical. Be diligent to address every little thing that threatens to derail you. Take captive every little thought that rises up that doesn’t belong in the type of garden you are cultivating. It takes practice – daily, consistent practice.
Take captive every little thought that rises up that doesn’t belong in the type of garden you are cultivating.
Weeds always grow. My garden is way better now than it was a few years ago at least I don’t have Devil’s Accordion or whatever that spawn of evil was growing everywhere but weeds still pop up. If The Man or I don’t stay on it every few days weeds take over any bare patch. As the plants grow though there are less bare patches. Weeds, even though they are always present, are less of a threat if you stay diligent.
I know many of yo
u are trying new things in your life. I can’t wait to see the first new growth of your endeavour break the surface. I can’t wait to see what you’ve kept hidden stretch out of the ground. It always amazes me that the seed grows. If I can help you in any way with your mental weeds, let me know.
Have you been guilty of assuming the seeds of your gifts don’t have value?
Have you stopped planting all together?
What weeds are choking out your endeavours and dreams? How can you address them?
What other lessons have you learned about life from gardening?
Here’s a pic of my garden from Aug last year. Hooray it grew! I need to go address the weeds in my garden this year and the ones in my mind while I’m at it. You should join me.