Tending Gardens, Tending People

We recently got back from a spectacular trip to England and Scotland.  I was gone three weeks - the first week I was in London for meetings - and then Marshal joined me for two.  (I will blog more on the trip some other time).

While we were gone, our daughter very carefully tended our very large gardens, both flowers and vegetables, making sure they were watered.  In addition, the weeks we were gone had regular rain and sun.  Perfect weather for the garden!

I left in spring.  I came back in summer, to flowers blooming, vegetables coming along nicely, raspberries ready for the picking.

Perfect, right?  Except for one little problem.  Our daughter, not having the passion for gardening that we do, does not know what's a weed and what's a plant.  And we haven't taught her.  And so... she had beautifully tended the weeds as well as the flowers.

It's my fault I failed to teach her... AND it's my fault because I left most of those weeds alone before I left.  Some I left because they were small enough that I wasn't sure what they were (those things I was hoping were basil?  Nope).  And some I left because... I confess... I like to keep a few of them around.

Morning glories are beautiful, aren't they?  They also can become a noxious weed, choking out everything in the garden.  But I always leave... some... because they are pretty.  Because of that, I spent a few hours yesterday untangling them from tomatoes, snapdragons, fuchsia... you get the idea.

As I was in the midst of this tedious task, I was thinking about how I need to teach Jenn the difference between a weed and a flower before I go away for three weeks in prime growing time again!

And then it crossed my mind... I also need to teach the group that I'm doing spiritual training with what's a weed and what's a flower or vegetable in their lives.

Our world can too quickly identify a noxious weed as a good thing... and can absolutely suffocate a small, rare, beautiful flower.  If we learn what to keep and what to get rid of from the world around us, we may conclude that we keep busyness, greed, selfishness, unfaithfulness, lust.  But even those things that may look nice like my morning glory are things that choke and kill.

Time to do some life-garden training....