Finding the weeds
Ever since I moved into my house in North Carolina, I’ve watched a Gardenia bush by our front door. For the longest time, it never thrived. I wondered about it because the conditions for the plant were perfect. It received the right amount of sunshine. It was growing near a leaky spout that spit water out onto the roots whenever anyone used the hose. And yet, the flowers would rarely bloom in the summer
When I looked closer at the bush, I noticed that there were two different types of leaves, instead of one constant blanket of deep rich green Gardenia leaves.
There was a vine running up through the center of the bush along its trunk. Tightening and choking the bushes water and nutrient supply as it used its branches to climb up into the sunshine above.
I cut the vine away at the base, and saw the scars in the trunk left behind in the Gardenia bush.
I can’t quite get the vine to die. Its tap root lies deep beneath the Gardenia bush. But every Spring, I watch for signs of that light green leaf that’s not supposed to be there. I see a young supple vine coming up – and cut it before it gets hard and starts choking the bush again.
It’s become somewhat of a meditation for me.
I think about the things in my life that are good. That are beneficial and healing and inspiring. Inevitably there are things, and people – that come up in the middle of that and choke me. Drain my energy away. Insert themselves into places they weren’t invited and try to climb up into the sunshine of my family. Sometimes, I bring those ‘vines’ into my life. Activities I shouldn’t be involved with. Activities I should be involved with that bring balance to me, and “prune” away things like bad health. Bad attitudes.
This vine and this bush are a church meditation for me. A quiet therapist that reminds me every year to take an account of my life and look at my own balance points. To trim away what is pulling life from me, so that the life in me can climb higher and grow.