Into Every Life...

I have worn many different “hats” in my life but the gardening cap never seemed to properly fit me.  I love the beauty of colorful flowers, plants lush with unique shape leaves, annuals and perennials announcing the change of seasons, black mulch to protect the soil below, planters and hanging baskets overflowing in a brilliant display.  Who doesn’t love and appreciate God’s creation in the garden!  It’s just the hard work that doesn’t suit me.

I marvel at my family and friends who spend hours toying in the gardens.  Their ability to name each variety and know details like sun exposure,  best type of soil and the proper amount to water – makes me feel inadequate and unworthy to receive their bounty.

The many years tending to my garden has taught me that a little hard work will yield many days basking in the splendor of their offerings.  And the hard work begins and ends with the weeds.  Those nasty, creeping and climbing vines can ruin and overrun the simplest garden.  It would be impossible to quantify the number of hours I’ve dedicated to their elimination.   (As well as the number of cases of poison ivy I’ve endured)

But that was before. 

Now I can only look at my gardens and be thankful. Gone are my days of donning that ill fitted cap and getting my hands dirty.  Instead I get to watch and enjoy the fruits of so many years of labor.  The money I spent was the best investment and the hours exhausted digging and planting brings new life every year.   But this year, I also get to watch as the weeds creep in and unfold a different kind of beauty. Intertwined in the perfectly manicured beds and arranging themselves for the best position – are the weeds.  It is no longer my task to pull at them and stop their spreading.  I must learn to enjoy how they complement the arrangement and add a new variety of life. Why and who deemed them unworthy of our affection?

My gardens with all the weeds got me thinking, and a lesson was learned.  Our lives are like beautiful flower gardens.  We work to create perfect, uniformed and balanced lives for ourselves.  But in doing so, we waste valuable energy & precious time removing what we deem as unacceptable; that which we do not desire.  Oh, but the lesson I see clearly from my garden is that happiness comes to those whose lives are a little messy, unpredictable and overgrown.  Wisdom and peace can flourish when we learn to live with the weeds, accepting their existence within the beautiful gardens we have grown.         

“Into Every Life…. a few weeds must grow”