Guest Post: Weeding and Clearing the Garden

– Weeding and Clearing the Garden –

Guest Post from Sue from Magnolias West.

Lessons in focus

Today I will be clearing some of the big, thick, thorny blackberry vines that are keeping me from the beautiful, sweet, ripening, plump berries, and doing some weeding.

Clearing out the blackberries, now that’s a shero’s task. They have evolved, those vines, with a boatload of protection. Big thorns you can see and little thorns you can’t. I borrow beekeeper’s gloves from a neighbor, long loppers from my landlady, put on long jeans (they don’t get snagged as much, and protect me more, than my go-to yoga capris) and I march out there.

I have a love–not-so-much-love relationship with these garden tasks. Now, in June, the rewards are immediate with those blackberry vines. Getting these big thorny barriers out of the way gets me that much closer, that much quicker, to ripe, sun-warmed yumminess. True confession: I almost never end up with blackberries in my house. I just pick them and eat them. Half the time, I don’t even bring a bowl down there with me!

As the daylight increases, every day, in this luscious window around the Solstice, there’s plenty of time to be in the garden. Here in Northern California the abundance of Summer is everywhere I look. The summer squash is starting to fruit. The tomatoes are flowering. The broccoli is almost three feet tall. We’ve got our second crop of beans in.

And then there are the weeds. It never ends, does it? I can spend an hour in the garden, weeding a couple of patches, and by the time I carry the bucket of weeds over to the chickens and walk back, I swear I can see the next batch of weeds poking their heads out of the soil. Okay, maybe that’s just a bit dramatic, but you know what I mean.

Lessons I learn from weeding

While the rewards may be longer in coming, there’s just as much payoff when I clear weeds from the vegetable beds as when I trim back the thorny blackberry vines. Pulling weeds allows the soil to breathe, allows the the food that’s growing to get its full share of the resources (sun, water, nutrients) instead of having to fight for them. And the plants get the space that’s needed so they can grow into their magnificent abundant yumminess.

When I’m weeding in the garden, I feel some of the same energy I feel when I’m looking at my home office, at my business, at my life, and zeroing in on what I need to do to let go of what no longer serves me.

Oh! Duh! Maybe weeding can be a metaphor for how I do my life and my work.

I’m in the middle of a year-long decluttering project. I’ve never embraced decluttering this way before. Every week, for an hour or more, I go through one little area of my home and office and clear what’s in my way, what is no longer useful. I’ve gotten rid of stacks and stacks of paper that was printed on one side (guess I thought I’d frugally use it in my printer, but I don’t print that much any more). I gave away boxes of books. I have found out just how many different earth-friendly cleaning solutions I have bought and now own (I seem to have cleaning product amnesia whenever I walk into a big store, and convince myself I must need some more!). I’ve combined a bunch of nearly empty moisturizers and shampoos into one container each. I found a beautiful hunk of amethyst that was tucked away in a corner and now is displayed where I can see it as I work.

Just last week, I gave away an antique secretary desk I had for twenty years, and also a big wicker basket. Letting them go to their new homes opened up some space and circulation in my front room.

And there’s the mental and emotional clutter, too.

When my mind and heart are crowded with unresolved stuff, I lose focus on what’s important and my energy gets scattered. When I decide I can meditate tomorrow—that I can skip a day (or two), or that I can take the time for a walk or a workout some other day (just not today, too busy!), my old habit of negative thinking can just too easily take hold.

When I’m out of balance, when I am spending too much time alone, when I’m nursing a resentment, or finding excuses that keep me from the work I’m meant to do, I’m in the weeds of my own creation. I can clear these weeds the same way I do in the garden, by consistent application of the tools that keep my internal and external spaces cleared so I can function from grace, and see clearly what I’m meant to be seeing.

I keep my personal weeds clear by doing these things:

Showing up for my commitments

Interacting generously with the beautiful people I have in my life

Expressing gratitude early and often, for the abundance in all the areas of my life

Doing the things that make my heart smile (singing, dancing, listening to great music)

Sticking with my daily practices

When I keep the weeds down by doing these things, the space is open for me to receive the abundant gifts that are all around me.

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I’d love to know how you keep your focus clear, how you keep your own weeds down. Please share a comment below. Thank you to Donna for inviting me to write for her beautiful blog. I’m honored.

Sue Kearney is Chief Inspiration Officer at Magnolias West, a branding and web design practice. She is a dancer, DJ, artist, gardener, cook, and a maker of herbal remedies as well as a fermenter of foods like kombucha and ‘kraut. Sue is a student of astrology, tarot, and a practitioner and facilitator of women’s spirituality.

Sue coaches women in business who want to integrate their most sacred heart’s mission and soul’s purpose in every area of their business. She offers the
Unmask Your Brand program , where the passionate woman in business can fully express her heart and soul in her brand, website and social media marketing. She
also offers the Share Your Magic coaching program designed to help you envision, manifest and sustain the business of your dreams. Connect with Sue at
Magnolias West. You can also read and join the conversation on her blog, subscribe to her newsletter full of business practices and tips both spiritual and
practical, and connect with her on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.