Weeds and Rain

Last Thursday morning I had about thirty minutes between dropping the boys off at school and being where I needed to be for the rest of the day. As I pulled back in to the driveway after the morning car line (hummpph), I took a long look at our yard. I am sure the fact that a friend, who has a perfectly beautiful yard, would be dropping Grant off at home after school made me look longer than usual.

The grass is a little long. That's what happens when the mower blade disengages, the weed wacker stops working, and the husband has a new job and limited time to fix them. It's not horrible, but we won't be winning the city beautification award, either.

In the few minutes I had, I decided to try to put in a little effort and do what I could. I went over to the "natural area." That is what we call the shaded half of our front yard where grass doesn't grow, but weeds abound. I started by pulling the tallest weeds from around our hydrangeas. For about 20 minutes, I pulled, piled, and cleaned. It looked good. I had some hope for the rest of the yard. That area looked so much better. I felt a sense of accomplishment.

Then I turned around.

There were still so many weeds, more weeds than I had time for, more weeds than I wanted to deal with, weeds that I, honestly, was now a little more willing to live with because I was hot and sweaty.

I started thinking as I went in to wash up and change clothes.

There has been so much rain this summer. Not typical in our state where drought and no burn warnings are a usual summer occurrence. Some rain is good, but lots of rain make me want to curl up with a good book and hide.  Those same showers that make me want to be a hermit, feed the weeds well.

My life has felt a little rainy lately. No major storms, but rainy. Distractions. Uncertainty. Job changes. Minor irritations. Walking through major storms with friends. A kindergartener going to school leaving my days open, but my heart and mind unsure of what's next.

When I feel overwhelmed by the rain storms of life, my tendency is to hide. Oh, I find things to do, like watch meaningless episodes of The West Wing on Netflix. But, I hunker down and in creep the weeds. The kind of weeds that get tall if I'm not careful. The kind that cause damage and choke out the important things. The kind that can be eliminated with some elbow grease and determination and sometimes a good dose of Round up.  Don't miss that- they can be eliminated one weed at a time.

So, rather than hide, I've started doing some weeding. Evaluating what needs to go, what needs to stay. Some weeds have deep roots. It's messy, a little boring, a little tough, and very necessary.

Do you have any weeds that need tending? Let's do it together.