Debbie’s Parable of the Weeds

April 14, 2020Blog, Encouragement, Personal Growthdistractions, grow, prune, weedsdebio7 Leave a comment

For weeks now, every time I sit down at our kitchen table and look out the window, these weeds are all I see. And they’re not really in our backyard. They are just beyond our retaining wall. But they are oh, so ugly, and now so blooming tall!

I actually didn’t even notice them for a while, we were keeping the curtains closed during the cold and rainy weeks. Then, when we opened the curtains, I still didn’t notice them, cuz they were of course smaller. But now, and for the last couple of weeks they are so obvious. I must do something about them.

Today was the day of their doom.

Weeds you know, are not intentionally sown, they grow where they’re not wanted, and grow automatically. They are considered opportunistic and will grow in any moist soil, tiny crack or thin layer of turf. “Weeds are competitive, persistent and interfere negatively with human activity.” (Dwight Ligenfelter, Dept. of Agronomy Penn State)

Weeds choke out life, rob soil and other plants of important nutrients, water and sunlight. Weeds are plants whose undesirable qualities outweigh the desirable qualities.

Farmers have said that weeds left unchecked can cut the harvest 40-60%.

So BAM! Away with them! Up from the roots they go. Bye, Bye Bye. (hear NSYNC in background)

Have you picked up any symbolism here?

Weeds are the things in our life that keep us from being productive. Things that steal away the important from us. Distractions that eat up our vital nutrients and exposure to light. Weeds are the things that make us unfruitful. Often too, weeds are a sign of neglect and perhaps even laziness.

If I think of weeds as distractions that keep me away from what is important, then the top of my weed list is my phone. Although I use it for everything and a lot of it is needed, useful, and good, not all of the swipes are, nor all the time on it is. It does distract me, steal my focus and eat up valuable time.

I don’t want the weeds in my life to be left unnoticed or unchecked but I want them UPROOTED! I am seeking a productive life, not overgrown with nonessentials and harvest hinderers.

I’m choosing to uproot and remove those pesky distractions before they flower and produce more seeds! I’m also searching for those dormant weeds in the soil of my heart, those that have been there for years to get rid of them, at the root.

I am only interested in good fruit from my life and want to prune away the small, insignificant, and barren branches. I want to feed the good and healthy and keep distractions from choking off their continued health and growth.

Because weeds grow so fast, pro gardeners recommend pulling weeds weekly. I’m in, I’m game. I know I need it. And, there’s such great joy that comes after you spend time in the garden, weeding, cleaning and pruning. Then you wash it all down, and sit back and enjoy it with a tall, cool glass.

I trust that you will join me in uprooting any unnecessary distractions in your life so that you, too, may be 100% productive.

“Weeds are stubborn. Weeds are independent. Weeds aren’t tolerated.” Marty Rubin

Cheers to you.

Butterfly Effect

March 29, 2020Blog, Encouragement, Inspiration, Personal Growthchange, difficulties, fly free, grow, struggledebio7 2 Comments

Butterflies are such beautiful and delicate creatures that most of us have taken the time to enjoy their movement, colors and mannerisms. Their wings are massive compared to their bodies and don’t even need to be so big for them to fly. They can actually fly with a damaged or broken wing.

They don’t flap their wings either, like birds do. You know – up and down. Butterflies create a figure 8 pattern motion with their wings by constricting their bodies thus moving their wings and propelling them through the air.

Their large wings act like a rudder. The larger the rudder, the faster you can turn a ship. With butterflies, their large wings enable them to turn faster and thereby not become someone’s dinner.

But that’s not all, let’s not forget how butterflies start out… as catepillars, then cocoon, then butterfly!

As that caterpillar is in confinement in his cocoon, the time grows near for his emergence. But that will never happen without a struggle, without pain, without a difficult fight. Without that struggle his transformation is incomplete.

As he pushes through the small hole, his swollen body and small, shriveled wings rub and rub and rub on the cocoon, until his struggle is successful and he emerges, nearly at the point of exhaustion. His body has been resized and is no longer swollen and his wings are dried, strengthened and he is NOW ready to fly.

Without the struggle, he will never grow or fly! This whole process, by the way, takes 5-21 days. Hmmmm.

This struggle that we now face, is not unlike the butterfly’s story.

We have allowed ourselves to become “swollen”, filled with excesses, and accumulation of things. Our ability to spread our huge wings and fly over it all has not been sufficiently developed, partially because the difficulties and frictions of life have been few and manageable.

” As with the butterfly, adversity is necessary to build character in people.”

” Storms make trees take deeper roots.”

” All flowers grow through dirt.”

In this time of “struggle”/confinement – let’s embrace the rubbing, reduce the excess, enjoy the process, persevere, and emerge with gigantic wings to fly above all that is earthbound.

Resist the urge to flap up and down at the same old pattern of your life. Let your wings develop a new pattern of flight and find their strength in practicing this new way, while still in your seclusion. For soon, you will be free to fly and turn quickly in your new found life.

Who knows what “Butterfly Effect” you are destined to cause?

Cheers to you.