Things that You Don’t’ Want to Grow…

I am sure you know by now I love wildflowers. I hunt for them, I cut them, I arrange them in my house, and they bring me lots of Joy!

I also have flowers growing in my front yard that I planted, and I enjoy these beauties as well. I recently had a lawn company cut my lawn because my lawn mower stopped working. UGH!

They did such a wonderful job, and my lawn never looked so good! They did especially well around my flower beds, really making sure the grass was cut very low around the borders.

It is 5 days later, and that pesky grass is already creeping its way back over to the flower beds. Meanwhile, I have some flowers I planted that are fried and struggling to live.

As I was on my run yesterday, I was looking at all the weeds growing all around me without being watered a few times a day and without someone tending to them with care.

And I thought to myself:

“Why is it that the things we don’t want to grow do, and the things we want to grow struggle and need so much WORK?”

I started to consider the things in our lives that we don’t want, yet they so easily spread and can be so invasive.

Why is it that the things we want take so much more work?

I did a few quick Google searches: “Why do weeds grow so fast and so easily?”

A few things I learned are that they grow quickly and their life cycle is very, very fast. In that cycle, they produce a prolific amount of seeds. So, they spread in abundance. They are also highly competitive and can take space, water, and nutrients that squeeze out other plants.

I recently had a conversation with a friend, and we were analyzing some of the religious belief systems in the West and spirituality. I shared that the more I work with people and interact with our humanity, the more I am convinced that what we are ALL seeking is PEACE.

We want peace in our bodies, peace in our souls, peace in our minds, and peace in our relationships. We want peace with our God, or to be free from our shame and poor choices we have made, and we want to be able to experience Joy.

So we search for these things, we desire them, we crave them, and we reach for them.

At our fingertips are millions of “weeds” that offer a fast, quick fix; they spread so so easily, and take almost NO effort at all, and before we know it, they are growing all over our lives.

For example, our relationship with food. I am guilty myself. I love a quick iced coffee, or a Chick-fil-A run, while I have healthy food sitting in my frig looking at me!

Or the easy fix of shopping, scrolling, sitting, binge watching, you know…we are smart people.

It’s easy right?

If we want PEACE, if we want true lasting Joy and Happiness, we are going to have to do something differently. We must.

A few years ago, I was really struggling to settle down at night and go to sleep. I knew the research of what helps: have a routine, get off screens an hour or more before you go to bed, pick a bedtime, stick to it, etc. Yet I just kept doing what I wanted to do; staying up late on my phone, or watching shows.

Finally, it began to interfere too much with my life and work, so I knew I had to do something different. I had a bunch of friends who read fictional novels for fun. I had not read for “fun” before, LOL. I was always reading for growth. So, I decided to give it a try.

I started getting off the screens, getting ready for bed, putting my phone out of my bedroom, crawling into bed, and reading a novel until my eyes started to close.

I had to cultivate a new habit; I had to tend to a part of my body and mind in a new and different way to see different results. My body and my mind found peace. I started easily falling asleep.

Do I still struggle occasionally? Of course, I am human! But I had to make a decision to pull some weeds and plant some new seeds that would bear a different kind of fruit in my life.

What is it for you? What do you want to grow in your life? In what area have you been settling for the easy, fast-growing, fast-spreading weeds that take over our lives?

My dear, what I want for you is PEACE. I want you to be able to truly say, I have found rest for my soul.

I am with you on the journey as we look for new ways to cultivate growth in our lives. I’ll water you, and you water me, and let’s grow.

From My Heart to Yours