Regrowth

March 26, 2020

Yesterday I felt like I’d had enough.  I knew I needed to get out of the house if only for a short walk.  When I mentioned this to Melissa, she agreed . . . and she knew what we could do.  The warm weather meant the flower beds in front of our house were completely overgrow with the flowering plants generally known as weeds.  We had weeded and mulched the beds last year, so I knew how much work we were getting into.  I told myself at least since we hadn’t gone to the store, I wouldn’t have to lay down the mulch.

Melissa set to work on the long bed that covers much of the front and I took on the task of the two smaller beds that straddle the garage.  As I cleared back the weeds, I wondered at how much easier it was to remove the overgrowth since we had done this last year.  Most of the intruding grass was gone and the weeds that replaced it were close to the surface and easy to pull.  It literally came out in handfuls.  As I worked my way through the weeds, I spotted a familiar plant.  This wasn’t a weed.  It was the first shoot of one of the Hosta we planted last year.  The shoot had been there all along but had been hidden by the mountain of weeds towering over it.

When I went out and checked on the shoot this morning it had nearly doubled in size and had begun to unfold.  It had struggled under the weight of the weeds, but now that weight was lifted, and the plant was able to flourish.  I didn’t ask Melissa if she wanted to get out today.  After all, I knew I still needed to spray the yard.

THOUGHTS: After we have struggled through a period of winter in our lives, we welcome the coming of spring.  Yet even here we can be overwhelmed by the “weeds” that grew during the struggle.  We tend to look at the long road to recovery rather than the accomplishments already gained.  When we set our hand to recovery, we find it is difficult, but often easier than we envisioned.  As we work through the process, we can see a small shoot hidden by the clutter.  When we remove the weeds from around the shoot it can flourish.  Recovery is on the way.