“Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.” – Proverbs 4:23
Birthdays seem to come faster and more frequently as the years go by… Today I celebrate another one. As I think of how wonderful it is to celebrate new beginnings, a new year, a clean slate to write my next year into existence, I also think about the importance of weeding.
I found myself growing more and more introspective as the end of another year approached. After a couple fun parties, surrounded by friends, family and lots of love and appreciation, I found myself wanting to do something quiet, in the cool of the evening, all by myself. I love our long summer evenings when the skies stay blue late into the evening and the sun’s slanted rays create that perfect, magical mood for lingering in the garden.
I decided to work on weeding flower beds.
As I got my gloves on I thought of how weeding was the perfect way to end a year, a perfect way to prepare myself for the beginning of the gift of a new year.
Weeds are things I don’t want in my garden. They make my flower beds unruly, ugly and uninviting.
Weeds grow faster than anything I take the time to plant and groom. They’re quick to rear their ugly heads. They’re the first to pop up after April showers.
Weeds take much longer to uproot than I expect. Correct technique is super important in the way I pull them out. Even the tiniest of remnant roots can cause weeds to grow again.
Weeds thrive better than the plants I want in my garden. They seem to grow faster and taller than the plants I’ve taken care to select and plant in my garden. They stunt the growth of my precious plants by robbing them of nutrition and water.
Weeds will even take over my flower beds if I let them and choke my plants from reaching their full potential.
When my Dad was a young college student he wrote a poem called Weed the Weed of Human Heart. We’ve teased him about it over the years for several reasons. Yesterday, when I was on my knees pulling weeds, I thought of that poem again and I smiled as Truth in that poem resonated deep within me.
If our hearts are gardens then they too are subject to weeds – weeds that require regular pulling and destroying. If the heart is left untended, weeds will thrive and take over. They will stunt the growth of the wonderful things that are meant to thrive and bear fruit. That’s just the way it is.
We all desire new beginnings, new seasons, new hope… weeding is part of preparing the soil for a new season that is effective and in which we can bear good fruit.
Today I embrace a new year. As I continue to plant fresh new seeds/seedlings in my heart as well as continue to tend to older plants, shrubs and trees, weed control needs to be a priority. I recommit to tending things I plant with intention, attention, love and care. I recommit to controlling weeds.
“You will know them by their fruit. Grapes aren’t gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles, are they?” -Matthew 7:16
~shini abraham, ©2014, duco divina – contemplative doodling
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