A lot happens in a garden in two weeks in July. While I was gone tomatoes ripened, dahlias bloomed, slugs attacked the lettuces, beans twined around hollyhocks. And the weeds grew and grew and grew.
I spent most of an afternoon and most of the following morning weeding.
The garden is a big metaphor for life, and the time I spend there is nourishing on many levels. It's healthy to work outside with my hands in the dirt; I love growing food and flowers to bring into my home; and I love the lessons of the natural cycles, and the time for contemplation that comes with the work of a garden.
I came home from holiday with a deep knowledge that I needed to get clear and simplify, that I needed to make much more conscious choices about where to invest my energy, that I needed to get rid of the things (activities relationships ideas commitments beliefs) that draw on my energy without feeding back into my life.
It's easy to tell a thistle from a sweet pea. Not so easy to pull the whole thistle out by the tough, deep root without disturbing the delicate flower that grows side by side with it. I'm doing my best, and I'm ever thankful for the beautiful lessons offered up in abundance by the cycles of nature.
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