Along with Spring often comes the lovely task of yard clean up.  In my case, I had an area of our yard that is behind our mostly unseen garage… thereby allowing what I am about to show you to get out of control.

As I started to be able to see the weeds through the window of the garage and feared that my kind and typically understanding neighbors might start to be bothered by the view of this messy foliage, I knew it was time to do something.

A few things this experience taught me…

(1) This task felt overwhelming and to be honest, I was frustrated because I felt like we’d already tackled this problem in the past and here we are again.  How did this happen?  Shouldn’t my one-time hiring of a yard professional to remove these weeds have taken care of the problem for good? But, no amount of frustration would eliminate the mess that had grown without my knowledge.  My time spent bemoaning the fact that we were in this place and that I was overwhelmed wasn’t going to solve the problem.  It was one of those cases where I decided I had better just start and any amount of weeding would make things better than they were.

(2) As I got started, I realized that I was capable of more than I thought.  I’m good when it comes to pulling a weed here and there but I didn’t think of myself as being able to tackle true yard work—the kind of work this undertaking would prove to be.  Turns out, I was more than capable and the things that I hadn’t done before, I figured out along the way.

(3) A weed is not always what it appears to be on the surface.  As I got in there, I realized some of these were small budding trees!  Their root systems were crazy and it was not going to be a simple pull that would release them from my yard.  I needed reinforcements!  In this case, it was a combination of tools—massive yard scissors (I don’t know what they’re called) and some weed killer (the kind they said was ok for the environment, of course) that helped me get the job done.  Sometimes, we will get into something and realize it’s more than what we bargained for.  Rather than giving up, what other tools and resources do we have at our disposal that will get us closer to our end goal?

(4) Somewhat related to number 3, some of these weeds were rooted very deeply.  A simple pulling of the leaves on the surface would have solved the problem…but only superficially.  Unless I got below the surface, I was only going to have a temporary reprieve from these weeds.  Is there something below the surface for you that you need to work a little harder to release?  Think about how beautiful it will be when you do!

(5) Last, all weeds are not created equal!  One of the varieties I found in my work was a vine that had wrapped itself around various things that had been left behind in the garage (by someone else in my family who thought it would be a suitable place to store…oh say..bikes that our kids had outgrown).  Now, not only do I have the weeds but I have this bike that I can’t release from the strangling vine that had a hold of it.  What are we leaving unattended or ignored that will eventually be strangled by the weeds of our lives?  The extra things that come out of nowhere and suck the life out of us when we’re not prepared.  Take inventory of what doesn’t belong in your life right now or maybe it’s in the wrong place and put it where it belongs before you’re faced with an unwelcome intervention.

When we do the work, we get to enjoy the view and the experience of being weed-free!

What weeds in your life do you need to tackle?