For several years now, I’ve been saying, “If I only had the time” or “If I didn’t have to have to work my day job, I would…” Well, now I have the time. And I am doing. Since I’ve been out of work, I have most of the office cleaned, am making good progress with cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen and living areas and have a small garden started. Plus, this past week we replaced half of our water system, are now fully prepared to replace the last two major components and are getting ready to install new add-ons to the system as well. We’ve been busy!
But in all this, my most pressing project, and the one that takes next priority are pulling up the weeds in the yard and garden area. Now, digging weeds in the rural desert is no easy task, regardless of how small they are. The smallest are less than 1/8 inch wide, with a root that is already over an inch long. By the time they are a 1/4 in wide (often overnight), they are already producing seeds. And left untended, they can grow up to four feet in diameter. During monsoon season, the dead skeletons are often seen blowing in the wind for up to a mile, causing damage to anything along their path! Like I said, no easy task.
So, the other day, I’m out digging winds in the same spot where I was digging less than 2 months ago, and I start letting my mind wander. And with so much going on in the world right now, and with everything going on in my personal life, there was a lot of places for my mind to go. After a few minutes, I started to realize that I was following my mental programming, and every thought I had was a negative one: something judgemental, critical, a complaint about this or that. Then I realized that my thoughts were just like the weeds I was digging up… and if I didn’t pay attention to them, they were going to grow and take hold of my mind, just like the weeds were trying to take over my yard.
Digging in the desert as it’s heating up to early summer heat is no fun. But instead of being upset or frustrated, when I recognized that the weeds in my mind were taking hold, I started to put as much attention to weeding them out as much as I was digging up the weeds in my yard. For every physical weed I dug, I let go of another negative thought as well. And in the middle of the heat, I thanked the Spirit for another lesson, and for showing me a beautiful example at my doorstep of what happens when I don’t watch what is happening right in my own mind.
Blessed Be.
The Warriors Den 