spring weeding.

It is coming. It's creeping upon us like a stealthy thing, but it is indeed coming. You can smell it in the air, and feel rushes of warmth on the wind.

Spring is surely on the way!

Today the sun was shining and the birds were tweeting. So I decided to hike on my working boots and do some weeding in our over-grown garden.

I walked out the back door onto our porch, with my work jeans on and my hair up in a messy bun, ready to work. Bo followed me onto the grassy lawn and  I arched my neck to the sun. Reaching up to the sky, I stretched out all my muscles that were worn from hours of chemistry equations and timed essays. I breathed in a huge gulp of new air and got my tools.

With my spade, rake and clippers in hand I set to work. This is Bo's first spring, so she was amused by everything. She snatched clipped branches, and played with the crickets in the grass, so excited by this new beginning.

And I got to thinking. Spring really is a new beginnin

          A fresh start and a new breath.                                                      

With every weed I pulled, I thought of the weeds in my life that I wasn't even aware of.

Like the weeds in my garden they creep up, and before I know it are taking over my whole life.

They could be anything...

Pride, selfishness, insecurity, anxiety, gossip, judgement.

All of it. It's all weeds.

And Christ is the ultimate weed puller.

He gently pulls on the worthless sprouts until I realize that they really aren't that valuable. In their places, he lays pure, black, beautiful dirt

Some of the weeds appear on the surface to only be a few leaves. But under the ground they are rooted into  a vast netted system.

They are like the sins in my heart that I don't let the world....or even my own self see.

And yet they are the most dangerous because they can grow to become large problems, and when I finally let them go...they leave the biggest holes.

I rake the foliage and weeds away gently to watch for the new sprouts that are beginning to show their beautiful heads after the long winter.

I find it so amazing that they just know when to arrive.

They can't see or feel the seasons...

but they are drawn upward by the warmth of the good sun.

I sit in the cool dark dirt, and I sift the soil through my fingers, pulling the weeds as I see them.

It's a long patient process...but it has beautiful results!

Tossing the weeds behind me, I soak up the warmth on my back, and continue to steadily pull.

Before I know it. The weeds are piled high behind me.

I bask in the grace of God and his never failing love.

It's so awesome:)

 My mom calls me into dinner. The time has flown by.

I pick up my tools, dust off my pants, and the thought hits me.

We won't be here next spring to see the buds breaking the soils surface, or to witness the trees with their new green leaves. We won't be here for the brown grass to turn green again, or the air to smell like freshly cut grass.

We'll be in a new adventure. Maybe I'll be gazing up at the cherry blossom trees in Kyoto. Or maybe I'll be running on the sea wall near our house. Or maybe, just maybe, I'll be surfing in Aussie.

You never know.

 For now, I'm pulling the weeds of the winter, and pondering the simple things.

That's all for now:)