I’m making new efforts at gardening this year. Most summers we have been away for much of the summer and this has been my excuse for not planting more than a few petunias in some old boots and a few herbs in the greenhouse. Last year I invested in many hours of student labour to dig up my garden plot by hand, help me move my fence to create a smaller, more manageable space and get rid of the grass and trees that had taken over what had, at one time been a nice garden area. All of that with the goal of this year actually growing something we could eat!
So this year the Spring has finally come and now I’m faced with following up on my lofty goals. We’re planning to stick around Nazko for most of the summer, so now is the time to see how black or brown my thumb really is. I’m under no illusions that it is anywhere near a green shade! I have visions of potatoes, carrots and beets alongside the strawberry plants that I have already in faith purchased. The rhubarb that I transplanted from the neighbours last summer has poked its head up with determination. Sounds great doesn’t it!
The snow has only been gone for a couple of weeks, but there are some green things in my lovely garden that have already bolted for the sky trying to prove that things can really grow in that space. The problem is, it isn’t what I want to grow in there! Why is it that the grass grows so well in my garden and I can’t coax it to grow in the rest of my lawn even with grass seed and fertilizer? In the space of a week, the grass and dandelions are threatening to overcome the spaces I had envisioned Fall vegetables and ripe strawberries.
It all puts me in mind of the habits I struggle with in my life. I have these great plans of the good things I’m going to do: eat healthy, exercise more, read more, better organize my time, keep in better balance between work and rest etc. It is like the vision of vegetables and strawberries I have for my garden. But then there are all the bad things that keep popping up without any effort and without me seeming to notice: eating junk and too much, skipping my weight workout because I’m tired, being scattered, loading too much onto my ‘to do’ list, hanging out on facebook for too long, etc. A little time goes by and I realize that I’ve eaten so much that I don’t want dinner and I haven’t started cooking yet, or I just used up all my time skimming around the internet rather than get next week’s Bible Class lesson planned. Bad habits grow as quickly and easily as the grass and weeds in my garden and make it a lot harder to provide space and good soil for the veggies and strawberries. Likewise all those bad habits crowd out the good things I try to put into my life. I need to really get on top of the bad habits as soon as they pop up, not putting them off, but yanking them out by the roots so they don’t choke out what I really want to grow in my life. I need to prepare the ground. God’s Spirit uses that little voice in the back of our mind to help us out here. That little voice that lets us know it is time to do some weeding. We know what doesn’t belong. We just need to listen a little more closely and then get out there and yank when the weeds come up so we can be ready to plant the good stuff in its place.
I need to get out and do some weeding, prepare the ground and then get planting. What about you?
