It seems the most profound lessons come while working in the garden. Have you had that experience?
While trimming the hedges, I started thinking about the little kids giggling and weeding behind me--comparing them to these bushes. I'd let the garden go a little, and the weeds had taken full license. The hedges had overgrown their boundaries and were invading other plant's space. I imagined the bushes response to my clippers, how they would cry out in pain if they had a voice and ask, "Why are you doing this to me?" As I yanked the weeds free from around them, they might shriek, "Those are part of me!" They couldn't possibly see my vision for them--how they might bloom in their respective space and make the garden complete, or how the removal of weeds would ensure their continued prosperity.
I thought about how if I, as caretaker, had really cared about them, I would have trimmed them back before the pain was so great, before the stray branches were so thick, before they'd taken so powerfully to growing one direction, or before the weeds were so thick around them.
It's much the same with raising children, or better yet, raising ourselves. We have the power to shape ourselves into what we want to become, but occasionally that will mean painful trimming is required. It will require that weeds choking our time and energy be removed--and the sooner, the better. If we truly love ourselves, or those littles we're blessed with, we'll correct erroneous behavior or weed out dangerous elements right at the onset, rather than waiting until they've nearly destroyed the plant's true potential. We'll be vigilant, and regularly reevaluate our hedges needs, and we'll do our part--even when it's painful--to cut off that which keeps us from reaching our true potential.
Have you weeded your life lately?
I thought about how if I, as caretaker, had really cared about them, I would have trimmed them back before the pain was so great, before the stray branches were so thick, before they'd taken so powerfully to growing one direction, or before the weeds were so thick around them.
It's much the same with raising children, or better yet, raising ourselves. We have the power to shape ourselves into what we want to become, but occasionally that will mean painful trimming is required. It will require that weeds choking our time and energy be removed--and the sooner, the better. If we truly love ourselves, or those littles we're blessed with, we'll correct erroneous behavior or weed out dangerous elements right at the onset, rather than waiting until they've nearly destroyed the plant's true potential. We'll be vigilant, and regularly reevaluate our hedges needs, and we'll do our part--even when it's painful--to cut off that which keeps us from reaching our true potential.
Have you weeded your life lately?
