Seen Known + Heard

I let the garden go again. Some days I forgot about it, others I just ignored it because I had too many other things on my plate. There it sat, left to its own devices, to grow wild. It started with a few little weeds sprouting up, and by the time I got to it, the weeds were higher than the plants we were growing. It happened fast, and I was shocked as I walked around the corner. How did this happen? How did it get this bad so fast? Piper was the one who encouraged me to “get back in the game” and walk around the corner and tackle those weeds. As we started ripping them out, I could hear excitement in her voice. “Come on Mom, let’s get these weeds out of here!” It took about thirty minutes to get the surface level weeds, but then came the harder work: the roots. It looked pretty again after those thirty minutes of work, and we could have stopped there, but then we realized if we did, they would just grow back again within a week.
I picked up the hand rake and started digging deeper. I was already tired, but I knew I had to keep going because of how much I was finding beyond the surface. I did the best I could to get to a majority of them and was committed to returning the next day for more even though I didn’t want to. Piper was sure to remind me that we needed to finish the work, so feeling a bit refreshed, I walked out there and got to work. I wasn’t satisfied until all of the weeds were overturned - until the soil had been fully cycled through the rake. The rake is a powerful thing, it disrupts the weed at its root, rips it out, and churns the soil so that it’s ready for new growth.
I was thinking about how this much relates to our process. Let’s rip up the weeds in the way - weeds of insecurity, false control, shame, bitterness, resentment, and more - and run them through the rake. Let them surface, sit with them for a bit, and figure out what we want to replace it with. The sitting with it is important, much like not stopping at the surface level weeds. If we just try to rush through them, we won’t get at the deep roots. It’s okay to take your time, and it’s okay to be where you are. You might do a little work or processing on it one day and then decide you need to return the next day, and you may do that for two or one hundred days. What matters is that you just show up. And when you do, day after day, you’ll get more comfortable with the process of ripping out those weeds, sifting through them, and digging up the roots. It prepares us for the new things that are to come.
Let’s take a closer look at how weeds actually work. Weeds choke other plants out because they take up space, water, and essential nutrients that would otherwise benefit plants. They block nutrients and water, which could cause them to choke and die eventually.
Because weeds are not good for surrounding plants that we want to grow, so it’s vital to learn more about weeds and how to prevent them or uproot them so they don’t cause further damage.
Weeds take up space that could be used for good things to grow. They are blockers that stand in the way of the good.
Much like actual weeds, it’s important to note that ugly weeds in our lives like bitterness and unforgiveness can cause larger issues. As we learn to release and remove these “weeds”, we’ll have to cultivate a lifestyle of doing so. Weeds come back if we don’t keep removing them.
As you now know, weeds can choke other plants out by taking nutrients and water from them, so removing all weeds is always a good idea. Even if you only see one or two, it’s best to get ahead of the problem before they become harder to manage.
There are different things you can do to remove weeds. The method you choose may depend on how stubborn the weeds are, how many there are, and whether they’re annuals or perennials.
As we learn more about our own “weeds in the way”, we’re going to learn how to prevent them from choking out meaningful connections in our lives. Things like control, assumptions, and lack of self-awareness can take nutrients from good things in our lives like connection, understanding, and freedom.
Some “weeds” in our lives are going to be a lot more stubborn than others. It depends how deep they’ve run. If we’ve had some bitterness that we’ve held onto for 25 years, you better believe that weed’s roots are going to run deep. But it’s not impossible to rip it up from the root and throw it out. Once we learn how to do this and we start practicing it and making it a habit, the freedom we experience gives us the motivation to get to the weeds that are the most stubborn and take them out. Get out of here, weeds. No one wants you around. You don’t look good in a garden, and you don’t look good on us.
Once we learn how to pull these weeds out repeatedly, we can take preventative measures to get ahead of them. We spot them the minute they pop up, and we’re not going to be tricked by them anymore. We know the damage they cause, and we know what life looks like without them, and we like it a lot better without them. So, we start to recognize them right away and apply the weed killer. We know how to get rid of them and we create a habit of doing so for a better, more meaningful life.