weeds

It is a beautiful, rainy, spring Sunday.
After a good church service,
and a great breakfast with my oldest,
I ventured outside to look at my garden.

I am about to go on a road trip with Terry next week.
I am excited about it.
I haven't seen him in 5 months and he just got a 2 month job.
Our 25th anniversary is in June, so this will be our trip!
Minnesota for a new truck, then Corpus Christi to see the grandbabies.
Flying home on Sunday.

I look forward, but also am a little anxious...
mainly because the garden is about to burst out in purple!
Glads, Azalea, Lilac, Iris, Money plant...
I see it every year and enjoy it so much!
Maybe it will wait a week.

Back to weeds....
As I was looking at the garden and all that needs to be done...hopes and visions,
I began weeding a bit.
I know, I am one of those people that do not share many hobbies most would consider fun, but a few will know what I am referring to.

I can spend hours weeding in the garden.
Cool days, maybe a bit of sun for the shoulders, no mosquitoes...blissful for me.
I sit on the grass and pull what I see, which leads me to another patch and another.
Most times my brain is silent and peaceful.
Sometimes, God and I have long leisurely conversations.
I solve all the world's problems in the garden.

It took me many years to be patient enough for weeding tho.
So many early perennials look like weeds.
I must remember what bloomed where the year before, and then leave space around it for new starts.
I have pulled many a new growth and had to wait years for it to replenish itself again.
The Money plant is a great example of that!
I feel I have a good grasp on that beauty now.

As I was pulling crab grass and chick weed (worst ever)
I began a train of thought about weeds.
Like the cockroaches, I believe that weeds will stick around forever.
No matter how you treat them, how many you pull, stomp, crush, poison etc.
they always come back.
Even digging a trench between lawn and garden only stops them for a time.
Birds and dogs carry their seeds along,
They have powerful root systems that hide from you and set up camp in your nicely mulched areas, and last year I discovered a new way of weed propagation.

As I was on my hands and knees weeding, I was scared half to death when tiny seeds jumped into my face!
Normally, when I see a spider, the weeding is done.
So I was ready for an attack of the arachnid type.
No spider this time.
These pretty little weeds with hairlike stems and tiny leaves, when touched, release their seeds into the air!
Really!
All over the place!
I have yet to figure out when the best time to pick them is without setting them off.
Because, as I know now...once they spring, you wait until next year to find hundreds more where there once was just one!

Most weeds are pretty. Violets, dandelions, chickweed, those little white thingys...those purple thingys...
Why did God make them so sturdy?
Why did God make flies so annoying yet plentiful.
Spiders....won't even go there.
Do the weeds serve a purpose, other than making me and God time?
Will they take over the world when people are gone?
What about all the manicured lawns and lovely gardens that man so tries to control nature with?
Is it a short lived preoccupation that we have?
To pretend we are in control?
What is God's perfect plan for the land?
I know He gets a kick out of our creativity.
We do try so hard to be like Him.
One of the questions I will have to ask someday!