Well I am feeling very middle aged!  I know my age signifies that I am… but I don’t feel it the majority of the time…

 

I actually gardened again… After all the rain, the dead lavender bushes didn’t put up so much of a fight this time…   (I knew there would be a good reason for rain on a bank holiday…)

 

So I thought I would try the weeding that I have previously always resisted and put up a fight for.  James even brought his parents round to show them!  They all stood there with their cups of tea in disbelief.  It has only taken 10 years… (I have the crying with laughter emoji going on in my head… )

 

It turns out weeding isn’t that bad.  And all I could hear in my mind were my thoughts of one of my favourite topics.. mental gardening and how it is so similar.

 

The weeds I pulled out were like carpets… lots of it… growing amongst all the Christmas Roses, grasses and lavender.  They were tough… and so intertwined… choking all the good plants and pretty flowers.  And because they were so many, so dense, they were really tough to get out!  I had to use tools as well as brute force to pull them out, get the whole root out.

 

It is a lot like mental gardening.  If you don’t get that first weed, that first negative thought, they go to seed… and they soon grow thick and fast, wrapping themselves around and killing all the good, positive thoughts and shoots.

 

You can snap off the bits that show, the green bit of the weed showing above the surface and everything looks ok… but it will soon grow back.  To get rid of it entirely, to let the good shoots have a chance breath and grow again, you have to dig deep and get to the roots, pull that out.  And that is the tough bit.

 

But once you have it, and it is out and ready to be tossed in the barrow, it is a great feeling!  Liberating, satisfying..

 

It seems a miracle has occurred.  I actually quite like weeding.  Not something I will admit to the Big Man or my parents in law…

 

“A miracle is shift in perception, from fear to love”, Marrianne Williamson.

 

I no longer fear weeding as being a dull and boring job, but have learnt to love weeding as time for reflection, a way to feel productive and satisfied.