when life gives you weeds
above: among the weeds..and hops, lady's mantle, fennel, figwort, roses, and comfrey
you get to sit in this chair, I'll be on the bench over here. you, with lady's mantle reaching up on your right, comfrey stroking your back, figwort quietly standing by on your left, hops shielding you from the wind, and rose threatening to knock you over with her fragrance. All that, but also cleavers and velvet grass and fennel encroaching and draping and covering and sneaking up where you thought there were no weeds! but the practice is this: when the weeds take over, sit with them.
This chair that looks out onto the rest of the herb garden is so hard to just sit in, with all the weeding and puttering that could be done, but I've found it to be the perfect place to practice the art of staying with what is. How easy it is to wonder, then immediately jump onto the computer to get an answer. Or to have an idea, then right away set up some new social media site or page to voice it. Or to just feel compelled to get something done - to be one of those kinds of people who knows how to follow through/step up/assert/succeed. It's a little too easy these days for me, and others I witness around me. We all seem to be trying so hard all the time, you know? I relish in a good challenge, and the weeds provide me with just that. sit. still. so, the mantra continues: when the weeds take over, sit with them. and what happens? find out, let me know what comes for you...