Weeding

I am not a gardener. I like flowers in my yard and the look of a manicured landscape. We hired a landscaper a few years back to design and plant the stuff in our yard. It's pretty when freshly trimmed up in the spring. However, since we only hire somebody to do that once a year, maintenance is left up to us to make sure it looks presentable.

To that end, today I spent a little time pulling weeds in my front yard. I don't like it, but it has to be done because otherwise my flowers would not look as pretty as they should. It's boring, it's not fun, and I just don't like weeding. But it has to be done if I want the desired results.

I just wish I could transfer this mindset to other areas of my life. I wish I could practice getting rid of the yucky stuff so the good stuff would show forth. I wish I could get rid of bad habits so that the good habits I want to develop would come out. I wish I could weed out most of the bad stuff that tends to choke out and take over the good stuff in my life.

The fact is I can. I weeded the planters today. Maybe tomorrow I will weed out the distractions that keep me from jogging, or tempt me to eat ill-advised food choices, or simply waste moments in my day. It's just a practice, this weeding thing. It's work and it's boring and it's not fun. But in the end, the results are so beautiful that it makes all that weeding worthwhile.