Gardening: Know What You Sow

This weekend I was finally able to get back into the garden, at least on Saturday. So I managed to get one day of digging done. To catch you up, here is where I left off on my project. 

 The last couple of weekends have either been too cold or too wet for gardening. I was glad for a nice day on Saturday to continue my digging and discovery. 

While digging out the dirt and weeds and overcrowded daylillies, I began to think about the saying "You reap what you sow". Generally, this is true in the garden and in life. But it made me wonder: Do we always know what it is we are sowing? 

When you buy a bag of grass seed you expect to grow grass when you plant it. Yet we all know that within this bag of grass seed there are always some random seeds that just happen to get into the mix. So even though we spread the seed expecting grass, we still manage to get some weeds in the mix. I think we manage to do the same thing in life. As we travel through this world, making friends, getting married, having children, accepting some job offers and turning down others, we each try to make the best decisions possible. Yet our humanity sometimes trips us up. Though we believe we are sowing the seeds of grass and flowers and hardy evergreens, we still end up with some unexpected planting that surprises us. 

Before I began on Saturday

There is that external factor as well. Birds bring in the unexpected seeds from other places they visit. Dogs and cats transfer seed on their coats and deposit the seeds of who-knows-what as they wander through my yard. 

For my garden, weeds had begun to take over and things that I purposely planted, such as Bee Balm and day lillies, they had become overgrown and crowded. There have also been some random plants given to me by friends that I placed into this bed for lack of a better spot to put them. 

End of day Saturday

 The same thing can happen to our lives as has happened for my garden. 
Take care for that which ye sow; for whatever ye allow into your life garden will surely be that which ye shall reap.
Perhaps we let negative people and influences take hold in our lives, or that which we thought would be a beautiful flowering shrub of friendship actually turns into drama, tension and strife > a bush of thorns. There is also the overly zealous which thrive, grow and spread in our lives until we can no longer find our own self as one's own personality becomes enshrouded in the wants, desires and needs of others. (Mothers and Fathers take precaution here for children have a tendency to creep so deeply into our lives that we forget we used to be individuals with our own needs.) These plants must either be pruned to a manageable size or removed altogether. For it is true that all plants need a certain amount of nourishment and light to flourish. For one that is starved of enrichment and light will surely wither and die. The same is true for people. When our responsibilities, commitments and outside forces are not kept in check, they take us over and we find ourselves starved for joy, air, and light in which we as individual people grow and breathe. 

When any of those types of situations arise in our life garden, a choice must be made. Either continue to let it grow, wild and uncontrolled until we no longer recognize who we really are and intended to become, or we begin the process of digging out and finding one's self again to start fresh. Take time for yourself as it improves the life garden and those around you. A rose which is pruned produces more beautiful and abundant blooms than one which is left unchecked. The same is true for children, jobs, spouses and friends. I am a more effective mother, wife and friend when my own needs are met as I am more energetic, giving and cheerful. To fully care for others, I must care for myself.
My flower garden reached the point of "give up or dig up" and I chose to dig up. I'm still digging. I made some progress Saturday, although not as much as I would have liked. This coming weekend I should be able to reach the corner and begin the narrower end of the garden. That will be a relief as I will begin to see light at the end of my shovel tunnel. 
I'm still trying to discover my state in my life garden. Each day that I dig, I hope to get closer to knowing what I'm sowing.

 Every time I spend the day in the dirt digging out the weeds and removing overcrowded flowers, my pile of rocks grows larger. This weekend I pulled out the biggest rock yet. I swear it must have weighed 5 pounds. Rocks slow me down, but I continue to name them and cast them aside. 

Perhaps I will find a use for these rocks yet. 
Have you examined your life garden lately?